Colombian Drug Lord Captured in Phone Booth
In a joint operation between U.S. and British forces the last remaining top Colombian drug lord has been reportedly captured and is currently being detained.
Daniel 'El Loco' Barrera was the head of a large drug trafficking gang that is suspected of shipping more than 900 tons of cocaine across the Americas as well as Europe.
Barrera was apprehended in the Venezuelan city of San Cristobal after a four month "Washington-led" operation, which reportedly involved both the British MI6 intelligence service and the Central Intelligence Agency.
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They followed Barrera's every movement before deciding on the perfect time to act. Barrera was reportedly arrested as he made a phone call from a phone booth, according to reports from Sky News.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos addressed his country on state-sponsored television and conveyed the importance of Barrera's capture and what it means to the continued safety of the Colombian people.
"The last of the great capos has fallen…this is perhaps the most important capture of recent times…crazy Barrera has been perhaps the most wanted kingpin in recent times," President Santos said.
"He has dedicated 20 years to doing bad things to Colombia and the world, all types of crime, perverse alliances with paramilitaries, with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)," he added.
The United States labeled Barrera a "special designated narcotics trafficker" in 2010. Barrera had been facing criminal charges in New York and was closely aligned with FARC, Colombia's biggest rebel group and Latin America's longest-running paramilitary operation.
The government also revealed that Barrera's smuggling ring was capable of sending 10 tons of cocaine a month to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, and had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States and $2.7 million from the Colombian government.
In 2011 Colombia was the world's largest cocaine producer, according to the United Nations, but Peru is expected to overtake Columbia in the near future.
