Crime Correspondent: Medellin

Mejia Munera known as one of the "twins" killed in a shootout

Mejia Munera was wanted for drug trafficking in the United States and had a $5 million reward on his head offered by the U.S. government, as does his brother, Victor Manuel. "He was one of our most wanted," said Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos in announcing that Miguel Angel Mejia Munera had been shot dead along with two of his men in a rural area near the northern city of Medellin. Police killed a drug lord known as one of the "twins" who controlled Colombia's biggest emerging cocaine gang staffed by former right-wing militia fighters in a shootout on Tuesday.An informant guided police to the farmhouse where Mejia Munera, dressed in camouflage military fatigues, was found with his bodyguards, three of whom were captured.He and his still-at-large twin brother gained influence after they and other cocaine-funded paramilitaries disbanded under a government peace deal criticized by rights groups for not forcing former militia fighters to give up crime. "The twins were the most powerful leaders in Colombia's new generation of criminal bands, which combine paramilitary and drug-cartel structures and pose the biggest threat to Colombia's future," said Pablo Casas, an analyst at Bogota think tank Security and Democracy.The twins were paramilitary leaders who demobilized in 2006. But they refused to turn themselves in to face jail time along with other militia leaders as part of the peace pact.The "paras" were formed in the 1980s to help rich Colombians beat back leftist rebels who are still fighting the state in the name of socialist revolution.The United States has given Colombia about $5.5 billion in aid over the last seven years aimed at combating the drug trade and bolstering security. Urban crime rates have plummeted and investment is up in Colombia due to the military push. But cocaine exports from the Andean country remain steady at more than 600 tonnes per year, according to the United Nations. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Mejia Munera known as one of the "twins" killed in a shootout

Mejia Munera was wanted for drug trafficking in the United States and had a $5 million reward on his head offered by the U.S. government, as...

Wilber Alirio Varela-Fajardo, Julio César López-Pena

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNaQwFEDGJnXtDitBW9hyBw1zvLlBkmRbmqlXWJ1fY-EZ0i0B_wkdIV7awPuVnoLviWiF5bWCPDOGOeR1ir-LEri2vXnNX6NH5k6Ci-D9j1_uSLZCv7Cm0AQAZJG3x7BYM1AyDfLlKVyY/s1600-h/Wilbur_Alirio_Varela-Fajardo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149804676221954050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNaQwFEDGJnXtDitBW9hyBw1zvLlBkmRbmqlXWJ1fY-EZ0i0B_wkdIV7awPuVnoLviWiF5bWCPDOGOeR1ir-LEri2vXnNX6NH5k6Ci-D9j1_uSLZCv7Cm0AQAZJG3x7BYM1AyDfLlKVyY/s320/Wilbur_Alirio_Varela-Fajardo.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a>Wilber Alirio Varela-Fajardo Wilber Alirio Varela-Fajardo is one of the top echelon members of the North Valle Cartel. Varela-Fajardo is known as a "point man" by the other leaders of the Cartel to direct trafficking and enforcement operations. He is also well-known throughout Colombia as an enforcer and the leader of a "hit man squad." Varela-Fajardo determines how much each North Valle Cartel leader contributes for the target assassination of rival traffickers and suspected informants. Varela-Fajardo’s drug trafficking activities are integral to the North Valle Cartel which exports multi-ton loads of cocaine primarily from Colombia’s Pacific Coast to the United States and Europe. Julio César López-Pena worked closely with Norte Valle Cartel leader Wilmer Alioro Varela, participated in the shipment of multi-ton quantities of cocaine, worth an estimated $100 million dollars, to the United States between 1998 and 2003. Specifically, useing maritime routes through the Caribbean and Mexico, sending his drugs on speed boats that each carried as much as 1,600 kilograms of cocaine. In December 2001, for example, the defendant sent a load of approximately 1,600 kilograms of cocaine to Houston, Texas, where it was divided up; 600 kilograms were taken by vehicle to Manhattan for distribution. On separate occasions in 2002, LOPEZ-PENA organized the trafficking of two loads of cocaine -- 1,200 and 1,600 kilograms -- through territory in Colombia then controlled by the Colombian right-wing paramilitary group, Autodefenses Unidas de Colombia ("AUC"). Lopez-Pena paid a high-ranking AUC member $310 dollars per kilogram to handle and transport the cocaine through the AUC territory to the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2003, the Colombian Marines seized 4,000 kilograms of cocaine in the coastal region of Nanguma, Colombia, of which approximately 1,600 kilograms belonged to Lopez-Pena.found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment

Wilber Alirio Varela-Fajardo, Julio César López-Pena

Wilber Alirio Varela-Fajardo Wilber Alirio Varela-Fajardo is one of the top echelon members of the North Valle Cartel. Varela-Fajardo is kno...

Alejandro Bernal Madrigal,Fabio Ochoa

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlZ3RHZo3mpxSSLDLHwraaDPCFj1QEXD_V3x7iZd8BFyzVl1amHf8MyFLFJ3p_ObR7botPh9db3N3q1aDS1DiTmOMI72PBW3UqAjsFYmo3PIWUftxP_8BfJ5UZKnyxHmsoIVSKC9vViM/s1600-h/_1536122_ochoa_300afp.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149795862949062642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNlZ3RHZo3mpxSSLDLHwraaDPCFj1QEXD_V3x7iZd8BFyzVl1amHf8MyFLFJ3p_ObR7botPh9db3N3q1aDS1DiTmOMI72PBW3UqAjsFYmo3PIWUftxP_8BfJ5UZKnyxHmsoIVSKC9vViM/s320/_1536122_ochoa_300afp.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXxPQ9KxOCMhvBI-yiFXBifDWD3ua8fwCEn_4OplPNdr_ZNuQpMgOL931QfoT5Akdx3u6D-j2aJNn0IhGzf6lQSogK8Zs5QMoJ40IXLIOLnYBkuLvwxR-ALSCr8zgZNuhtUxc0QOvfpag/s1600-h/mad.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5149795111329785826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXxPQ9KxOCMhvBI-yiFXBifDWD3ua8fwCEn_4OplPNdr_ZNuQpMgOL931QfoT5Akdx3u6D-j2aJNn0IhGzf6lQSogK8Zs5QMoJ40IXLIOLnYBkuLvwxR-ALSCr8zgZNuhtUxc0QOvfpag/s320/mad.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a> Arrested: Alejandro Bernal Madrigal, whom a Federal official described as the head of the biggest cocaine ring in Colombia,Bernal-Madrigal was a member of the infamous Medellin Cartel and later ran the world’s largest cocaine transportation organization. He is being extradited to the Southern District of Florida for charges alleging that he operated a Continuing Criminal Enterprise, conspired to import and distribute cocaine, and that he oversaw the organization’s money laundering activities. and Fabio Ochoa, a member of the Medellin cartel. arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges were indicted on Sept. 30 by a Federal jury in Miami. The charges were unsealed.Fabio Ochoa, aged 44, is the most important Colombian drug trafficker ever to be extradited to the US. He entered his plea in a brief appearance before a federal magistrates court in Miami.

Alejandro Bernal Madrigal,Fabio Ochoa

Arrested: Alejandro Bernal Madrigal, whom a Federal official described as the head of the biggest cocaine ring in Colombia,Bernal-Madrigal w...