If you're a good boy, I'll meet you after we get out of prison

La Paz, September 15 (RHC)-- The Attorney General of Bolivia, Juan Lanchipa Ponce, said Tuesday at a press conference that the request for extradition of the former de facto government minister, Arturo Murillo Prijic, has been made official.  Murillo was arrested in the United States in May, accused of money laundering and corruption.

This formalization was carried out through the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Anticorruption Crimes, Legitimization of Illicit Gains and Customs and Tax Crimes and was presented before the Third Anticorruption and Violence against Women Instruction Court of the city of La Paz, for the case called "Tear Gas."

"Today the Commission of Prosecutors presented before the jurisdictional authority all the documentation requesting the extradition of Mr. Murillo, work that comprises more than 2,000 sheets translated into English, with this the Public Ministry complied with the administrative work requested by the Judicial Organ", indicated Juan Lanchipa.

"Now it is up to the judicial authority to process the extradition of Mr. Murillo through the Bolivian Foreign Ministry and send it to the United States," he said.  

The criminal proceeding against Murillo is for the alleged commission of the crimes of Undue Use of Influence and others, related to the case in which the acquisition of tear gas material with alleged overpricing is being investigated.  This is related to the crimes of money laundering and bribery for which the former de facto minister has been detained in the US since May.  

Arturo Murillo, 57, and former Chief of Staff, Sergio Méndez, 51, were arrested last May 21 and 22 in the U.S. states of Florida and Georgia.  Both served between 2019 and 2020 as officials during the government of former de facto president Jeanine Áñez, during the coup d'état in Bolivia.