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Colombia Nabs Big-Time Drug Lord

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 3, 2008

MARIQUITA, Colombia - Police acting on an informant's tip found one of Colombia's main cocaine traffickers hiding in a tractor-trailer's secret compartment - just days after police killed his twin brother, authorities said.
Miguel Angel Mejia, 48, was seized late Thursday at a roadblock in the steamy river town of Honda, about 60 miles west of Bogota, said Col. Cesar Pinzon, the head of Colombia's judicial police.

Mejia's twin and alleged trafficking partner, Victor Manuel Mejia, was killed Tuesday in a police raid on a ranch in Colombia's northwest.

"Roughly half of Colombia's criminal underworld was controlled by them," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.

The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward for each of the twins and sought their extradition in 2004 for drug trafficking. Santos said Miguel Angel Mejia's extradition is likely to be granted.

The brothers allegedly began trafficking in the 1990s. Colombian police estimate they were shipping 4 to 10 tons of cocaine a month to the United States and Europe.

The Associated Press

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