COLOMBIA: Police have capture Eugenio Montoya one of the country's top suspected drug traffickers who is wanted for extradition by the United States

Colombian police have captured one of the country's top suspected drug traffickers wanted for extradition by the United States after a gunbattle at a farm west of Bogota. Eugenio Montoya is accused along with his older brother Diego Leon "Don Diego" Montoya of leading Colombia's Norte de Valle drug cartel and is accused by Colombian and U.S. official of money-laundering and shipping cocaine to the United States. "There is an extradition request for two charges against him in the United States. I reiterate that this is an important capture which corroborates the state's actions against these groups of illegal drug trafficers," National Police Commander Jorge Castro told reporters after police escorted Montoya off an aircraft at Bogota airport on Monday (Janauary 15). The Montoya brothers are accused of being among the twelve most wanted drug traffickers in Colombia by Washington, which has offered rewards of up to $5 million for their capture. Montoya is sought for extradition by a Florida court. Authorities believe the Norte de Valle cartel is also behind scores of murders in the region where it operates after internal disputes broke out in the group three years ago. Colombia is the world's top producer of cocaine and much of the approximately 600 tonnes a year of the illegal white powder manufactured in the Andean country is smuggled into the United States and Europe. Washington ally President Alvaro Uribe has received millions of dollars in U.S. aid to fight the drug trade and the country's four-decade rebel insurgency which has turned to the narcotics business to finance its operations.

ITN Source | January 16, 2007

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