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Colombian police arrest rebel
leader wanted by US
The Colombian authorities have
arrested a suspected rebel
leader wanted by the United
States on drug trafficking
charges, official said on
Sunday.
Farouk Shaikh Reyes, a
clandestine member of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, was captured
by soldiers and police at
Bogota's international airport
as he arrived on a flight from
Mexico on Saturday night.
Shaikh Reyes is wanted by a
federal court in Florida on
charges of conspiracy to import
cocaine into the United States
to trade for weapons for FARC.
"A Florida court indicted him on
Feb. 15 for conspiring to
possess with the intention to
distribute more than five km of
cocaine in the United States,"
said the prosecutor's director
of forensics, Jaime Lopez.
Shaikh Reyes was arrested thanks
to the collaboration of rebel
leaders Simon Trinidad and
Omaira Rojas now in custody in
the United States, said General
Carlos Suarez, commander of the
army's fifth division.
FARC, the largest armed rebel
group in Colombia, has about
17,000 fighters and controls
nearly 40 percent of the
country's territory.
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