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| Drug cartel leader Diego Léon Montoya Sánchez was captured by Colombian forces Monday as he hid under a pile of leaves on
a ranch in Colombia. Daniel Munoz/Reuters |
Colombian drug lords toppled
The capture of the No. 1 cocaine kingpin, Diego Montoya, follows a string of recent successes against major drug traffickers in the South American nation.
By Sibylla Brodzinsky | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the September 13, 2007 edition
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BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - – Even before one of the world's most sought-after drug lords was officially behind bars following his surprise capture this week in Colombia, officials say they were hot on the trail of his potential successors.
In the biggest blow to Colombia's drug cartels in more than a decade, a special Army commando unit seized Diego León Montoya Sánchez Monday on a ranch in southwestern Colombia. He was found hiding under a pile of leaves by a stream. After unsuccessfully trying to bribe the soldiers with $5 million each, he resigned himself to his capture. "I lost," he said to his captors.
Mr. Montoya was the violent and powerful figurehead of the Norte del Valle cartel, which officials say is responsible for more than two-thirds of the cocaine exported from Colombia annually and for at least 1,500 murders.
A beaming Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos announced the achievement, vowing that the police and Army would not rest on their laurels. "Drug traffickers take note: This is the future that awaits you," he said.
The arrest of Montoya was a much needed boost for the beleaguered Army which had been hit hard by revelations last month that the Norte del Valle cartel had infiltrated its top ranks. By bribing high-ranking officers, Montoya was able to know ahead of time of any operations against his organizations and any obstacles to the regular trafficking routes.
Last year, for example, a US-trained elite Colombian police unit was ambushed in Jamundí when they raided a house where they'd been told Montoya was hiding. Fifteen Colombian soldiers, including a colonel, are being tried for the murder of 10 policemen in what is known as the "Jamundí Massacre."
In recent months, the bribery scandal has grown, costing two Colombian generals their jobs, and led to the arrest of 26 officers and noncommissioned officers. Mr. Santos said the purge of the corrupted Army units was decisive in the success of the operation against Montoya.
"Captures of this significance re-infuse the public forces with credibility," says an official with the US Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) office in Bogotá.
Montoya's arrest comes on the heels of other recent successes against drug traffickers. On Aug. 7, Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, nicknamed "Chupeta" of the Norte del Valle Cartel was arrested in a raid on his home in São Paulo, Brazil. He had undergone several rounds of plastic surgery on his face to conceal his identity. On Sept. 1, Tomás "El Negro Acacio" Caracas, a FARC commander believed to have controlled the rebels' drug operations, was killed in an air raid on a FARC camp.
"There has been a crescendo of events; there has been momentum building," says the DEA agent, who asked to remain anonymous in accordance with US Embassy policy.
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