Espada case: convictions of commissioner and seven police officers become final after Supreme Court setback

The convictions of former San Pedro police chief Cristino Ramón Aranda and seven other officers are now final after Paraguay’s Supreme Court declared their defense appeals inadmissible in the Espada case.

The officers were convicted in 2023 and received sentences ranging from 10 to 14 years for extortion and drug-trafficking offenses. The Penal Appeals Tribunal upheld the convictions in February 2026. The Supreme Court’s Penal Chamber has now rejected the extraordinary cassation appeals filed by the defendants.

Aranda received the longest sentence, 14 years. The former police chief was convicted of aggravated extortion, criminal association, illicit drug trafficking and related offenses, including crimes committed by a public official responsible for prevention.

The case followed an operation in which police officers ambushed members of a criminal organization preparing to unload cocaine packages that had entered Paraguay from Bolivia by air. The operation took place near Hugua Guazú in the Loreto district of San Pedro. According to the case, the officers demanded $100,000 to release the shipment, but the extortion attempt failed after agents from Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat intervened.

A specialized organized-crime trial court convicted 13 people in total on Nov. 27, 2023, including the eight members of the National Police. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the convictions against the former police chief and the seven other officers in force.