The Corruption Engine Behind Sebastián Marset’s Empire

On October 14, 2020, a Paraguayan congressman named Erico Galeano Segovia and a Paraguayan businessman named Hugo Manuel González Ramos went to sign a deal for Galeano’s condominium in a small city about 60 kilometers from the Paraguayan capital of Asunción. To buy the apartment from Galeano, González brought $1 million — in cash. And while the two men signed the papers, the bills fluttered through a money counter.

The deal was one of many that Galeano, who would go on to become a senator, was making with a powerful criminal network run by Sebastián Marset, an Uruguayan drug trafficker and alleged money launderer, with an affinity for soccer. 

Marset’s network stretched across at least three countries and included security officials and politicians like Galeano. González, Paraguayan authorities later asserted, was a strawman for Miguel Ángel Insfrán, who was later accused of trafficking several tons of cocaine through Paraguay to Europe with Marset. 

SEE ALSO: Paraguay Impeaches Senator Linked to International Drugs Trade

However, Paraguayan authorities were on their trail. And about a year after González bought the apartment from Galeano, Insfrán and Marset’s network was dismantled in the largest counterdrug operation in the country’s history. Both men fled. 

But the operation exposed a complex web of money laundering fronts used to inject cocaine profits into Paraguay’s financial system, among them the million dollars that went into Galeano’s pocket for the apartment. And as investigators found, that web stretched well beyond property deals. 

Sham Transactions

The $1 million deal was a win-win for Galeano and Marset. Galeano had purchased the condominium in 2013 for just $210,590. And while it’s hard to know what motivated him to buy the place, when he was elected to Congress in 2018 as part of the ruling Colorado Party, he did not disclose it among his assets. What is clear is that by selling it for an inflated value, the money from Marset and Insfrán’s alleged cocaine profits could enter the formal system in a notarized, seemingly legal transaction. 

This was not an isolated case. Fellow Colorado Party Congressman Juan Carlos Ozorio, who was also indicted, transferred a property to a front company owned by Insfrán to launder cocaine profits. 

But Galeano’s case went far beyond a single property sale. He also spent years laundering money through the Deportivo Capiatá football club, where he was president and a board member. Notably, Sebastián Marset was a striker on the team where, presumably, he could also keep an eye on the business. 

Prosecutors said Galeano would create invoices showing the club owed him for his investments in the team. The club would then pay off some of those debts. 

The rise in the value of the invoices was substantial. In March 2022, the club owed Galeano about $170 (₲1,100,000). By July 2023, that debt had risen to $1.5 million (₲10,379,000,000), according to Galeano’s financial declarations. The money, however, was not debt. It was from cocaine trafficking.  

The scheme became a template for Marset. After Paraguayan authorities launched their operation against the network, Marset fled to Bolivia. There, he bought a small team, Los Leones del Torno. He built them a new facility in Santa Cruz and started playing again. And then, like Galeano had in Paraguay, Marset used his club to launder his criminal profits, according to the Washington Post.

Flying High

During the trial that followed, government investigators revealed that Galeano did not just provide money laundering services but also logistical support for Marset and Insfrán’s cocaine trafficking network.

On November 24, 2020, for example, Marset and Insfrán used Galeano’s plane to go to Salto de Guisrá, on the Brazilian border, and Asunción. It was not registered as a passenger aircraft. Authorities say the flight was one of at least five they took on Galeano’s aircraft. 

The impetus of this logistical support came on October 8, 2020, when authorities in Paraguay seized eight planes that Marset and Insfrán allegedly used for cocaine shipments. The seizure was a major hit, temporarily interrupting their ability to travel around the country and organize shipments. 

SEE ALSO: What Marset’s Capture Tells Us About the Cocaine Business

That was when Galeano entered to provide in-kind support for the network. Small aircraft, like the one Galeano lent to Marset, were key to the operations. It was a similar style of aircraft that first landed Marset in prison back in 2013. That plane was loaded with marijuana and was flown by the uncle of Paraguay’s then-president, Horacio Cartes, who heads Galeano’s Colorado Party. Cartes faces his own accusations of ties to Marset and Insfrán.

Similarities crop up in the Ozorio case. Part of the indictment, for example, states that he helped the drug network by registering a helicopter they bought with drug money. Prosecutors believe they used Ozorio’s name on the registry as he had immunity at the time as a congressman. 

Ozorio resigned from Congress in February 2022. He was charged with criminal conspiracy, international drug trafficking, and money laundering a month later. His case is ongoing, after testimony from the accused, including Insfrán, began in January 2026. 

Marset was arrested in Bolivia on March 13, 2026, and extradited to the United States. After his arrest, Bolivian authorities seized 16 planes. They believe Marset used the aircraft to fly cocaine into Paraguay and travel to arrange his illicit business dealings.

Marset, Insfrán, and Ozorio are still awaiting trial.

Galeano had his immunity stripped by Congress in May 2023. He was sworn in as a senator a month later. On March 3, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. On March 11, 2026, Galeano took an indefinite leave of absence from the Senate, but he has not been formally arrested.

Featured image: Paraguayan lawmakers vote to strip Erico Galeano of his congressional immunity. Credit: Paraguay’s Senate