Brazilian police refuse
us$5 million reward for
Colombian druglord
arrest
Brazilian federal police
on Friday turned down a
us$5 million dollar
reward offered by the
U.S. government for the
capture of the Colombian
drug lord Juan Carlos
Ramirez Abadia.
Ramirez, leader of
Colombia's biggest
cocaine cartel -- North
of the Valley Cartel,
was arrested Tuesday by
Brazilian police and is
being held in custody in
Sao Paulo.
Brazilian police said
the fight against drug
trafficking and money
laundering, with which
Ramirez is charged in
the country, forms part
of the constitution, and
cannot be conditioned to
"financial interests."
The amount is the second
highest offered for a
suspect wanted by the
United States following
al Qaeda chief Osama Bin
Laden, for whom a bounty
of us$25 million dollars
has been offered.
Ramirez, considered one
of the most influential
drug lords in the world,
faces 315 charges of
murder in Colombia and
the United States, in
addition to drug
trafficking charges.
On Friday, federal
police arrested
Colombia's Jaime Verano
Garcia and Brazil's
Eliseu Almeida Machado,
who allegedly
participated in
Ramirez's gang. Agents
also seized 1 million
U.S. dollars in cash.
According to police, the
gang's patrimony in the
country amounts to
millions of U.S.
dollars, including flash
cars, farms, manor
houses, 16 companies and
a yacht estimated at
us$1 million dollars. |
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