8362: Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of coastal drug networks (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <maxblanchet@worldnet.att.net>

Colombian authorities arrest alleged leader of coastal drug networks
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 18, 2001

Text of report by Carlos Franco
published by Colombian Caracol radio web site on 17 June

Cartagena: The suspected leader of the drug-trafficking networks on the
coast, Elias Alfredo Barranco, was arrested in an operation in Cartagena by
the Counter-narcotics Police in Colombia's northern region.

According to official sources, an arrest warrant had been issued by the
Prosecutor's Office against Elias Alfredo Barranco for being responsible for
a shipment of 160 kg of cocaine that was going to be taken to
Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Barranco tried to ship the drug on the Jusser-Kuller motorboat in a
container in which the shipment was camouflaged in several hermetically
sealed tanks.

Source: Caracol Colombia web site, Bogota, in Spanish 17 Jun 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.