Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jun 2002
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2002 Cox Interactive Media.
Contact:  http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: George Gedda, Associated Press

REBEL LEADER ARRESTED, SENT TO U.S.

Colombian Held On Drug Charges

Washington --- A Colombian rebel leader wanted by U.S. law enforcement 
authorities on drug trafficking charges was arrested in Suriname and flown 
to the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday.

A leader of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC, identified 
by U.S. authorities as Carlos Bolas will be arraigned in U.S. District 
Court, the DEA said.

''For the first time, we have not only indicted a member of a terrorist 
organization involved in drug trafficking, but we have also arrested him,'' 
said DEA Director Asa Hutchinson.

The agency took Bolas into custody Tuesday. Surinamese authorities arrested 
him for immigration violations after determining he was using a false 
Peruvian passport.

Surinamese officials, aware that Bolas was wanted in the United States, 
ordered him expelled and turned him over to the DEA. In Suriname, officials 
said Bolas was arrested in a house north of the capital of Paramaribo, 
along with five Surinamese and one Brazilian.

Carlos Bolas is a nickname. Officials in Suriname said his real name is 
Rojas. Colombian military officials, however, identified him as Eugenio 
Vargas Perdomo, 32, second in command of a FARC combat unit.

Last March, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Bolas on charges of 
conspiring to manufacture and import cocaine into the United States, the 
DEA said. The indictment alleges that, starting in 1994, Bolas and his FARC 
associates were leaders of a cocaine trafficking ring centered in Barranco 
Minas, Colombia, that manufactured and sold cocaine to international drug 
traffickers.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens