Venezuelan police this week arrested Colombian-born Carlos Ojeda, on wanted lists in Colombia and the United States as one of Latin America's biggest drug lords, the Venezuelan government said. Ojeda, sought by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration, was arrested on Thursday by agents from the CICPC anti-drug squad in a commercial district in the east of Caracas, the interior and justice ministry said.Up to seven international arrest warrants had been issued in the past few years for Ojeda, nicknamed "the Engineer" and suspected of coordinating much of the drug trafficking through Venezuela, the head of the country's anti-drug agency said. There is no warrant out for him in Venezuela, however.
Venezuelan authorities were studying extradition requests for Ojeda, in his early fifties, who was also in Interpol's so-called "red file," Luis Correa, head of the CONACUID anti-drug agency told Reuters by telephone. He said the interior and justice ministries were checking the validity of Ojeda's Venezuelan identity papers, which suggest he obtained dual nationality. As a Venezuelan national, his extradition would have to be agreed upon by the courts. Otherwise, as a Colombian national, Venezuela could deport him to Colombia and hand him to authorities there.
Venezuela is a conduit for cocaine as it travels from neighboring Colombia through the Caribbean to Europe and the United States. Traffickers use speedboats to ship drugs from its eastern coastline to boats or nearby islands.
Venezuelan and U.S. officials recently began working on a new cooperation deal to catch traffickers after Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, broke ties with the DEA last year and accused its agents of spying on his government.
Washington has branded the seven-year-old Chavez government a failure in the war on drugs.
Venezuela last month purged all 60 officers from the CICPC national investigative police drugs unit after accusations its agents had mishandled or lost captured narcotics.