Colombia Cartel Suspect Is Seized

BOGOTA, Colombia â€”  Police captured a reputed leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel Tuesday in a U.S.-backed effort to dismantle the gang.

Dagoberto Florez was on a most-wanted list of alleged cocaine kingpins sought by U.S. authorities under a court order handed down in New York in May. The U.S. government had offered a $5-million reward for his capture.

Police seized Florez early Tuesday in a rural area outside Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city, the national police chief, Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro, told reporters. He declined to provide details on the capture and said it had not been decided who, if anyone, would receive the reward money.

Florez was among nine reputed Norte del Valle cartel leaders sought for extradition after U.S. investigators traced a money trail from three small wire transfer businesses in New York to cartel leaders in Colombia. Florez was the second on the list to be captured, following the arrest in October of Gabriel Puerta-Parra.

In its heyday in the late 1990s, the Norte del Valle, named for the region of Colombia where the cartel originated, trafficked about half of the cocaine sold in the U.S. The U.S. government says the cartel exported $10 billion worth of cocaine in the last 15 years.

Under President Alvaro Uribe, a strong Washington ally, Colombia has extradited more than 100 alleged drug traffickers to the U.S. This month, he extradited Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, a co-leader of the dismantled Cali cartel, considered the most powerful drug trafficker ever sent to a U.S. prison.