Monday 4 November 2013

Colombian forces arrest guerrilla, mobster, dozens more over drugs

Colombian police detained 17 suspected drug traffickers around northern Colombia including a "police inspector" of the coastal district of Maicao who ensured drugs were received there and shipped onto Central America, Caracol radio reported on 2 November, citing the EFE agency. The 17 were suspected members of a group charged with shipping out drugs produced by gangs in several northern departments of Colombia; police detained 13 other members of the group in six months of investigations before the arrests. In the south-western port district of Buenaventura, Police arrested 11 suspected members of the Urabeños, one of Colombia's main gangs, including several described as "minors," Caracol radio reported on 2 November. The Army reported on 3 November the detention at unspecified dates of five individuals in different departments, most for carrying drugs, and of a captain of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the southern department of Guaviare. The latter, a fighter dubbed Ycape, was described as in charge of FARC "financing" in Guaviare and one of the organisers of FARC drug production and sales in several southern departments. Police and Navy troops separately caught at an unspecified date a man identified as the main drug trafficker of the Caribbean islands of San Andrés and Providencia; he would likely be extradited to the United States where he was convicted on drug charges in 2009, El Colombiano reported on 3 November, citing the Colprensa agency. The detained, a man dubbed el Mono Lever, fled in 2002 from a Mexican prison where he was serving a 13-year sentence for trafficking.