MARANDUA, Colombia — With 70 Colombian soldiers closing in, dozens more in helicopters overhead and blood oozing from bullet holes in his right arm and hand, the man suspected of being a cocaine lord knew he was out of options.
In a dark corner of jungle near Colombia's border with Brazil, he thrust his hands skyward and cried "Don't shoot, I am the Brazilian Luiz Fernando Da Costa."
Da Costa, 34, is believed to have been swapping guns and cash for cocaine with this country's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Thousands of elite counter-guerrilla troops were dropped into one of Colombia's most remote areas in February in search of Da Costa and a FARC commander believed to be in business with him.
They found rebel camps, uncharted coca fields, secret cocaine-processing laboratories and documents.
But they didn't catch up with Da Costa until Thursday, when authorities detected a small plane taking off from Colombia toward Brazil. Air force fighters forced down the plane and the army said Da Costa was on the run without food or water.
After a three-day, wild jungle manhunt, anti-guerrilla ground troops supported by three U.S.-built Black Hawk helicopters trapped Da Costa and the others along a riverbank Saturday night and forced the fugitives to give themselves up.
Colombia's military hopes collaring the trafficker — known in his country as "Fernandinho Beira Mar," for the slum where he grew up and began his notorious career — will demonstrate that the FARC is deeply involved in the cocaine trade.
The rebel faction admits it pays for its 37-year war by "taxing" poor peasants who grow coca, the plant used to make cocaine. But the rebels deny they operate as a drug cartel or maintain ties to international smugglers.
Da Costa, who was arrested with two countrymen, on Sunday faced reporters flown to a military base outside Marandua, about 35 miles from where he was captured.
"I don't have ties to the FARC and they have not given me protection," said the Brazilian, who took a bullet in the right arm from soldiers. His arm and hand were heavily bandaged.
Colombia's army says Da Costa was bringing in arms through Suriname and taking out about $1 million of cocaine a month destined for the United States and Europe. Officials said Da Costa was paying the rebels $500 a kilogram for cocaine.
The arrest is "a stiff blow to the finances of the FARC," said Defense Minister Luis Ramirez. "This marks the beginning of the end of the drug cartels that operate in the Brazilian and Venezuelan borders."
Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Gregori said Sunday his government would seek extradition. Since fleeing jail in 1996 where he was serving a 20-year sentence, Da Costa has accumulated new drug and homicide charges in Brazil, Gregori said.
But what authorities here are cheering as a victory could still prove embarrassing for Colombian President Andres Pastrana.
During more than two years of peace talks with the FARC, he has steadfastly defended the guerrillas from charges that they have shed their political ideals and become mere drug criminals.
Pastrana said Sunday from Quebec, where he is attending the Summit of the Americas, that the FARC will "have to demonstrate to the world that it is not dedicated to drug trafficking."
"Otherwise there will not be any international support for the peace process," he added.
Washington is providing hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to train and equip Colombian anti-narcotics troops. U.S.-trained units, however, were not involved in the hunt for Da Costa.