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Posted by: kwflatbed

By TOBY MUSE
Associated Press Writer

BOGOTA, Colombia --
Colombian soldiers entered the stronghold of America's most-wanted drug trafficker and arrested him without incident on a small farm, achieving what authorities described as the biggest drug war victory since Medellin Cartel leader Pablo Escobar was gunned down in 1993.
Diego Montoya, who sits alongside Osama bin Laden on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives list, allegedly leads the Norte del Valle cartel, Colombia's most powerful and dangerous drug organization, responsible for exporting many tons of cocaine to the United States from the world's No. 1 cocaine-producing nation.
The FBI had offered US$5 million (euro3.6 million) for information leading to the arrest of Montoya, who put up no resistance when the army tracked him down in Valle del Cauca state, Chief Federal Prosecutor Mario Iguaran said Monday.
Vice President Francisco Santos said Montoya's arrest has dealt a major blow to Colombia's largest remaining cocaine cartel, and that the government would quickly begin proceedings to extradite him to the United States.
"It's a blow that shows the committment of our public forces in the fight against drug-trafficking," Santos said.
Colombian authorities wouldn't immediately say exactly when or how they arrested Montoya, who was being brought to the capital for questioning. Meanwhile, the FBI was studying his fingerprints and otherwise working with the Colombian government Monday to confirm his identity, said spokesman Richard Kolko.
Authorities have been closing in on his cartel since last year, when the army killed eight members of a private army believed to be protecting Montoya, but a wide network of cartel informants frustrated the search by police and soldiers.
Better known as "Don Diego," Montoya has been in a bitter turf war with the Norte de Valle cartel's other leader, Wilber Varela, who goes by the nom de guerre "Jabon," or "Soap," and is reported to be living in Venezuela.
Hundreds have been killed in battles between their rival armed militias along Colombia's Pacific coast.
A U.S. indictment unveiled in 2004 against Montoya and Varela said that in the previous 14 years, their cartel had exported more than 1.2 million pounds - or 500 metric tons - of cocaine worth more than $10 billion from Colombia to Mexico and ultimately to the United States for resale.
Colombia's government has made major gains agains the cartel this year. Montoya's brother, Eugenio Montoya, was captured in Colombia in January. Former cartel leader Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante, known as "Rasguno" or "Scratchy," was extradited to the U.S. in July after pledging to cooperate with the U.S. authorities. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, known as "Chupeta" or "Lollipop," was arrested last month in Brazil, where he allegedly commanded the cartel's money laundering operation.
The Norte del Valle cartel rose in the mid-1990s from the ashes of the Medellin and Cali cocaine cartels, paying for drugs and protection from both far-right paramilitaries and leftist rebels.
Montoya has been in the headlines recently as another scandal grows over his cartel's alleged infiltration of Colombia's army and navy.
Since taking office in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe, a key U.S. ally in Latin America, has approved the extradition of more than 540 Colombians to the United States, the majority on drug-trafficking charges.
For his aggressive stance, the United States has awarded Colombia with more than US$700 million (euro500 million) in annual anti-narcotics and military aid.
Most of those extradited are suspected of being low or midlevel drug traffickers, however.
High-profile extraditions have included Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, brothers who helped found the Cali cartel.
Colombia is the source of 90 percent of the cocaine entering the United States. Supply has remained robust despite record extraditions and eradication of coca crops.
The Norte del Valle cartel appeared to learn from the successes and failures of earlier cartels. Escobar and the Rodriguez Orjuela brothers seemed comfortable in the limelight that eventually brought them down. This newer generation of traffickers sought a lower profile, and learned to use unrestrained violence at the slightest provocation.
One high-ranking Norte del Valle cartel member, Victor Patino, who decided to testify in the U.S. saw at least 35 family members and friends slaughtered in retaliation for his betrayal.
The Medellin and Cali cartels dominated Colombia's underworld in their day, but in recent years traffickers have been squeezed out of much of Colombia's countryside by far-right paramilitaries and leftist rebels who export drugs to finance their armed struggles.
And despite Montoya's capture, recent Colombian history has shown it won't take long for the next cocaine king to take the crown.


Wire Services

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Posted by: Sgt K

I'll believe it when he's on United States soil. My bet is that he has an "accident" in custody in Columbia.

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