The top law man in Bolivia is now in jail.

His name is Roger Mariaca. He is Bolivia's attorney general. That means he ran the office that charges crimes in the whole country.

Police picked him up Wednesday night in the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia's government said. He is held on suspicion of drug trafficking and money laundering. That means hiding where dirty money came from.

It came just two days after the U.S. took away his visa.

Then came the cash.

Early Thursday, cops caught four people at his house. They were trying to sneak cash out in an ambulance. That is what Marco Antonio Oviedo said. He is Bolivia's interior minister. He said the load was $300,000. It was a mix of Bolivian cash and U.S. dollars. He said cops were still counting it Thursday.

A video from his office shows cops pulling stacks of bills out of the ambulance's panels.

"A criminal organization entrenched in the justice system has been dismantled," Oviedo told reporters.

He said Mariaca's office had turned into a crime ring. He said it worked to shield drug gangs.

He also said the U.S. helped. The arrest took place with the "cooperation of the US government," he said.

Mariaca was not the only one taken in. In all, four prosecutors were arrested, officials said. So were six workers from his office. So were the four people caught with the ambulance.

Cops also held Alberto Zeballos, Oviedo said. He led prosecutors in Santa Cruz. The U.S. went after him this week too.

Police raided the main office in the city of Sucre. They also hit offices in Santa Cruz and La Paz.

Not all see it the same way.

Mariaca's office first called the raid a "kidnapping." Claudia Pardo speaks for that office. She called the raid "illegal." She later said she was under arrest too.

Mariaca says he did nothing wrong. Before his arrest, he said the U.S. move was about politics. He said his work had made some groups mad, at home and abroad.

"No political pressure, national or international, can stand in the way of establishing the facts, which must be investigated," he said at a news event in Sucre.

His lawyer is Romel Ipamo. He said Mariaca will "cooperate fully" with the case. He also asked that "due process be guaranteed." That means a fair shake in court.

Evo Morales is a past president of Bolivia. He slammed the arrest. He said it proved that "here in Bolivia, the United States governs."

So why did the U.S. act?

On Monday, the U.S. State Department pulled his visa. It said he took bribes to help drug dealers. It said he helped violent crooks get away. The U.S. barred him and his family. It also went after other prosecutors and judges in Bolivia.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised Bolivia on X. He said it took "bold and decisive actions" against drug gangs and graft.

There is a drug lord in this story too.

His name is Sebastian Marset. He is from Uruguay. He was one of the most wanted men in South America. Bolivian police caught him in March. He was handed to U.S. agents and flown to the U.S. He now waits for trial here.

Bolivian TV aired a video this week. It claims to show Marset on the day he was caught. In it, he says, "Mariaca is my friend." The video has not been proven real.

Bolivia has changed a lot. For about 20 years, the left ran the country. It did not get along with the U.S.

Then Rodrigo Paz took office as president in November 2025. He has moved closer to Washington. In March, Bolivia joined a U.S.-led group called the Shield of the Americas. It fights crime gangs across the region.

Mariaca got his job from Bolivia's Congress in October 2024. That was before Paz took office.

So who runs the office now? A prosecutor named Luis Montano Morales will fill in for now, the office said. Congress plans to meet Friday to talk about who comes next.

No charge against Mariaca has been proved in court.

Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.