Spanish police detain top Colombian drug trafficker wanted by US (AFP)
12 minutes ago
MADRID (AFP) - Spanish police said Friday they detained a top Colombian drug trafficker who had been indicted in the United States for being a major supplier of cocaine to the United States during the 1990s.
Edgar Guillermo Vallejo Guarin, 47, was arrested at a luxury hotel in an operation carried out with the US Drug Enforcement Agency, police said in a statement.
The US State Department had offered a reward of up to five million dollars (3.5 million euros) for information leading to his arrest.
"Vallejo Guarin has an extensive history of violence, money laundering, and the corruption of high-level government officials," the statement said.
He was responsible for shipping tonnes of cocaine to the United States, especially to the Gulf coast of Florida, and to Europe and is also a suspect in several drug related murders, it added.
In June 2001 a Florida court indicted him for operating a criminal enterprise. It alleged that Vallejo Guarin was a major Colombian cocaine supplier to the United States from approximately 1990 to 1999.
The United States has asked for his extradition, the US embassy in Madrid said in a statement.
Known by his knickname "Beto el Gitano" or "Beto the Gypsy", police said Vallejo Guarin was carrying false documents identifying him as Jairo Gomez at the time of arrest.
His permanent residence was the Barcelona suburb of Sant Cugat del Valles but police said he was always on the move, staying in different hotels across Europe and Venezuela in order to elude arrest.
Police said they began their investigation following a request from the US embassy in Madrid which said the "dangerous drug trafficker" could be in Spain.
Police believe he went underground in Venezuela under a false name and then acquired a residence permit for Spain, Spanish media reported citing unnamed police officials.
Vallejo Guarin has "extensive ties to Venezuela and Spain" and "heads one of the most notorious and violent narcotics trafficking networks operating in South America", the US State Department said on its website.
He was one of five top Colombian targets listed on the site as being wanted for being major drug traffickers.
Spain is Europe's main point of transit for cocaine from South America, mostly from its former colony Colombia, the world's top producer of the drug.
The country has become the biggest consumer of cocaine in continental Europe, and is one of the world's top users of the drug, according to a report published in January by the United Nation's Office on Drugs and Crime.
Earlier Friday police announced they had seized 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of cocaine with a street value of over 48 million euros (69.5 million dollars) from a yacht near Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores archipelago and arrested the ship's three Lithuanian crew members.
