-
Source: ONE News -
Related
Venezuela has deported to the United States alleged Colombian drug lord Salomon Camacho, who had a more than $7 million price on his head and Washington says is a former associate of deceased cartel leader Pablo Escobar.
Rewards that high are usually only offered by the United States for major traffickers or senior cartel leaders.
The 65-year-old Camacho, who the US Drug Enforcement Administration says brought 9 tonnes of cocaine into the United States between 1999 and 2000, was led from a Hummer truck to a helicopter at a Caracas police headquarters with his hands cuffed and wearing a bulletproof vest.
Alleged Colombian paramilitary leader Oscar Ospino was deported to Colombia where he is wanted on charges of murder. Colombia says Ospino may be responsible for more than 1,000 murders.
Venezuela also deported a French citizen, Jean Marie Bonnamy, 51, who was arrested on the Caribbean tourist island of Margarita in December after French authorities linked him to the shipment of 968 kg of cocaine worth nearly $85 million in a sailing boat captured as it left Venezuela.
The DEA says Camacho worked with Escobar in the Cali cartel and more recently worked for Colombia's Guajira Cartel. It says he had strong ties to Dominican trafficking organizations, which helped launder money.
Venezuela says he was involved in the powerful Norte del Valle cartel.
"Camacho's activity as a major drug trafficker have harmed the people and undermined the sovereignty of Venezuela as well as Colombia and the United States," said Robin Holzhauer, spokeswoman at the US Embassy in Caracas.
Holzhauer said Camacho will be processed in Miami before facing five charges of money laundering by the US attorney for the District of New Jersey.
The government of President Hugo Chavez has invested millions of dollars in increasing its capacity to fight drug trafficking in recent years but is accused by Washington of not cooperating in the drug war.
Venezuela does not allow DEA agents to operate in the country and Washington says during Chavez's tenure there has been a huge increase in drug shipments from Venezuela, including large cargoes of Colombian cocaine on jets headed to Europe and the United States via Central America and Africa.
The Chavez government says the United States, which blocks sales of military equipment to Venezuela, is itself an obstacle to anti-narcotics work. Venezuela says it now has the capacity to fight traffickers without US help.
