Colombian forces captured a senior member of the Medellin drug cartel who is wanted in the United States on money laundering charges, the first major arrest in a massive 5-day-old crackdown on the narcotics traffic, police said Tuesday.
Eduardo Martinez Romero, who reportedly evaded arrest in Panama in March on charges of laundering Medellin cartel cocaine profits, was caught Saturday at his ranch near Tolu, 300 miles north of Bogota, the capital, police said."I know that there are criminal charges pending against me in the United States, but I don't know what they are," Martinez, 31, told reporters as he was taken to a maximum-security cell at police headquarters in Bogota.
Martinez is one of at least 12,000 suspects arrested since emergency measures were imposed to combat drugs following a string of assassinations of political candidates and other officials opposed to the powerful cartel.
Authorities said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Justice Department confirmed the charges against Martinez from an operation involving the Colombian bank, Banco del Occidente in Panama this year.
Police, meanwhile, interrogated witnesses and suspects in the killings last week of Superior Judge Carlos Valencia, Medellin Police Chief Valdemar Franklin Quintero and presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan.
Galan - like many other judges and journalists slain by suspected drug hitmen - was a vocal critic of the cocaine cartels and was seeking extradition of traffickers to the United States when he was slain.
Defense Minister Oscar Botero said Monday more than 12,000 suspects have been arrested in 600 raids under a massive crackdown launched after the murder of Galan, but that the key barons eluded authorities.
Authorities said Martinez is the most important member of the cartel to be arrested in the crackdown.
"The most important traffickers are either leaving the country or have gone into hiding. Sooner or later we will get them," the defense minister said.