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Colombian drug lord captured in Brazil

18 April 2010 00:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A Colombian suspected drug kingpin wanted in the United States was captured in Rio de Janeiro, Colombia’s defense minister said here, APA reports quoting Efe.com web-page.
"I don’t have the details because it just happened," Gabriel Silva told reporters, referring to the arrest of Nestor Ramon Caro. "I’ve been in contact with Brazilian authorities and the National Police since the early morning. The important thing is we have him."
Silva noted that a $5 million reward had been offered for information leading to the arrest of Caro, a former Colombian army lieutenant, and that he is wanted in the United States on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges.

"The international collaboration among Brazil, the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) and the Colombian police also confirms that international cooperation is the only way to stamp out the scourge of terrorism and narco-terrorism," he said.

The Colombian minister said the capture was possible after three months of surveillance and intelligence sharing among Colombian, Brazilian and the U.S. authorities.

Silva said he expects the capo will be deported to Colombia in the coming days and then subsequently extradited to the United States.

Brazilian police said in a statement that Caro, regarded as one of Colombia’s four-biggest drug traffickers, was arrested on Rio de Janeiro’s south side.

Last month, Bogota daily El Tiempo reported that Colombia’s military attache in Brazil, Col. Juan Carlos CastaÃ±eda, and an active army colonel, Rodrigo Martinez Silva, attended Caro’s wedding in 2004.

Also attending the ceremony were brothers and former army Cols. Carlos and David Betancourt Patino.

Video footage of the military men at the wedding, which took place eight months after the United States had issued a request for his extradition, shows them expressing affection and familiarity toward the reputed drug trafficker.

Caro’s capture represented the second significant blow this week to drug trafficking in the Andean nation, after Tuesday’s detention in Quito of Colombian national Ramon Quintero, one of the world’s 10 most-wanted traffickers.