It’s 5 a.m. in Costa Rica, about half an hour before sunrise. There’s a farm near the border the country shares with Nicaragua. Drones monitor the perimeter. Tactical teams move through the dark with one goal, when suddenly, the place erupts with gunfire. Five or six officers go down. One man who was protecting the farm was killed. The shootout lasts for an hour, but when it comes to an end, the most wanted man in Costa Rica, a man with a bounty on his head in the United States, too, is in handcuffs. “El Diablo” has been caught after a decade-long manhunt.
Alejandro Arias Monge was not your typical cartel boss, but he was not a good dude, and the entire Western Hemisphere is safer for having him off the streets.
Known as “El Diablo,” the Spanish phrase for “the devil,” he was born in the Costa Rican town of Guápiles in 1984. He began living a life of crime as a teenager, robbing homes in his community. He eventually escalated to the drug business. He had cells in all seven of Costa Rica’s provinces, and his transnational criminal organization was known for being extremely brutal. Costa Rican authorities suggest he was responsible for at least 100 murders over the years, and those are just the ones they know about.
In 2016, he got into a feud with a rival drug boss, which left a trail of burned and decapitated bodies across parts of Costa Rica. He and his men also weaponized social media, using it to threaten citizens and even police officers. They’d post pictures of drugs and weapons, warning messages to law enforcement and other political figures, and even videos of some of the grisly murders they committed.
In the United States, the State Department had a half-million-dollar reward for Arias’ arrest. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he “conspired with numerous drug traffickers and Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) to transport multi-hundred-kilogram loads of cocaine originating from Colombia. The cocaine is then smuggled through Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala to Mexico, with the ultimate destination being the United States.”
So why did it take so long to catch him? A few reasons. Arias doesn’t look like your typical cartel boss — the 41-year-old isn’t flashy and doesn’t live extravagantly. He has also remained mobile over the years, though he’s spent most of his time near the Nicaraguan border. Police there have tried to take him out a few times, but he manages to get away, in part, because he has a small group of loyal but fierce men willing to protect him. Thankfully, on Friday, July 24, those men lost.
VIDEO | Las autoridades de Costa Rica capturan tras un intercambio de disparos a Alejandro Arias Monge, alias Diablo, el narcotraficante más buscado del país, prófugo de la justicia durante 10 años y por quien Estados Unidos ofrecía una recompensa de 500.000 dólares. pic.twitter.com/CaxstI5G3y
— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) July 24, 2026
Costa Rica’s president Laura Fernández spoke out about the arrest, thanking the authorities involved, and sending a vague warning to the country’s judiciary. “I hope that the prosecutors and judges do not fail Costa Ricans and that El Diablo does not go free,” she said.
📷 #NoticiasTrivisión |“Espero que los fiscales y jueces no le fallen a los costarricenses y que El Diablo no quede en libertad”, manifestó la presidenta de la República, Laura Fernández, al referirse a la captura de Alejandro Arias Monge, alias “El Diablo”.
La mandataria además… pic.twitter.com/Lhylojehut
— Noticias Trivisión (@trivision_cr) July 24, 2026
While I can’t speak for the future, I can tell you they’re keeping their eye on this guy, even in custody. According to the Tico Times, he “spent his first night in custody inside the maximum security wing of the Jorge Arturo Montero Castro penitentiary complex, better known as La Reforma, in San Rafael de Alajuela” after he was transferred “in an armored tactical vehicle escorted by members of the agency’s special tactical response unit.” The Ministry of Justice and Peace even went as far as to suspend all general visits for the weekend to the prison, due to “security reasons.” Along with Arias, Jonathan Pérez Méndez, who was also detained during the same raid, is in custody there. Both men are under 24-hour surveillance.
“Diablo” ya está en celdas judiciales en San José.
Más información en https://t.co/MMnycIslIc. 📲 pic.twitter.com/4lL36d4pMl
— Telenoticias (@Telenoticias7) July 24, 2026
If you’re curious about the officers who were wounded doing this great work, only one remains in critical condition, and it sounds as if one has a very severe leg injury. There is a lot of mix-up between Costa Rican statements and the international press on the exact number of people who were wounded (some say five, some say six) and what their injuries are, but it sounds as if with a few prayers and good medical care, which Costa Rica has plenty of, they’ll be okay.
As we all know by now, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are working hard to clean up the crime and violence that plagues the Americas, but you may still be reading this wondering why you should care about the most wanted man in Costa Rica. As I’ve said hundreds of times, this type of activity in our own backyard bleeds into our country every time, whether it’s through drugs, violence, arms trafficking, human trafficking, or something more. The more of these guys we take off the streets in every country in North and South America, the better.
I also want to give President Fernández some kudos. She’s only been in office since May, and she’s proving to be a total bada**. She promised Nayib Bukele-like attention to crime in Costa Rica, and she’s getting it done. She’s also very close with the Trump administration and the United States, and our two countries are joining forces to take out criminals just like this, to a degree unlike we ever have done before. With our support, Costa Rica and other countries are taking out these narcos almost weekly, it seems, but this was a big fish. I’m glad he’s been caught, and let’s hope he stays that way.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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