Bolivia’s former deputy Laura Rojas told prosecutors on Thursday 5 November 2026 that the suitcases brought into the country from the United States through Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz belonged to Romer Saucedo, president of the Supreme Court of Justice.[1] Rojas gave the statement to the Public Ministry with a bulletproof vest on, saying she had kept silent out of fear for her safety and that of her children.[1] La Razón reported that Rojas arrived at the Special Substances Prosecutors’ Office in Santa Cruz de la Sierra shortly before 11:30 and said she was appearing voluntarily.[2]

The former judge Hebert Zeballos then said the 31 suitcases carried marijuana produced in California, and that he was told the luggage had the cover and protection of the then attorney general Roger Mariaca.[1][3] Zeballos said he went to Viru Viru to help Rojas out of friendship, and that he did not report what he learned because Mariaca was the top authority of the Public Ministry.[1] He also said that evidence had been planted on him and that he had spent eight months in detention in the case.[1] Zeballos first said Rojas told him the marijuana belonged to a man nicknamed El Alemán, supposedly Romer Saucedo Gómez, and that he doubted El Alemán was Saucedo.[3] In a later video, Zeballos said Rojas had told him at the airport that a passenger on the flight told her the marijuana suitcases belonged to a man nicknamed El Alemán, who was Saucedo, and asked the authorities for protection for himself and his family.[1][3]

The case concerns the more than 30 suitcases that entered the country on 29 November 2025, and Rojas, who is under house arrest for using her diplomatic passport to bring them in, says she does not know what they contained.[1] The suitcases arrived at Viru Viru airport on a charter flight from Miami, and Rojas went to customs a day later to collect 31 pieces of luggage registered as unclaimed.[2]

Saucedo, who has an arrest warrant for drug trafficking and criminal organisation, says he is abroad in exile, while Zeballos remains in preventive detention at Palmasola prison.[1] Rojas’s lawyer Joadel Bravo said she travelled from Santa Cruz to Miami for a political conference that never took place, was invited by Zeballos, and flew back on a Uruguayan friend’s chartered flight.[1] La Razón reported that the marijuana found in a warehouse where the suitcases are said to have been stored made the case more prominent.[4]