Colombia nabs 14 drugs traffickers with local links

Bogota. – Colombia authorities Monday announced the capture of 14 narcotics traffickers wanted in the U.S. on charges of forming part of the network led by the kingpin Daniel Barrera, alias "Loco Barrera," for whom it offered an around US$2.7 million reward.

Dionisio de Jesus Vera Olmos, also known as "El Flaco," and the other suspects reportedly shipped an average 1.5 tons of cocaine from clandestine airfields across Venezuela and its ports at Barranquilla and Cartagena, in containers aboard large freighters to Dominican Republic and Honduras, where bogus companies received and stored it, prior to resending the drug to Europe and the US, where the Virginia Federal District Court issued the extradition request for the 14.

In a press conference, Colombia Police director Oscar Naranjo said the capture nof Vera Olmos, who took charge of the ring’s dealings, "was the result of the police offensive to locate his boss."

"El Flaco" had allegedly forged an alliance with Jose Eberto Lopez Montero, alias "Caracho," leader of the Popular Anti-communist Revolutionary Army (Erpac), emergent group which in fact announced its dismantling in an interview today in the Colombian magazine Semana.