He was nicknamed the Lord of War, a ruthless Colombian cocaine baron blamed for the death of 1,500 people. His photo appeared alongside Osama bin Laden in the FBI Top 10 Most Wanted. But yesterday morning Diego Montoya was in plastic handcuffs, after soldiers found him cowering behind a bush dressed only in his T-shirt and underpants.
"I lost," was said to be the laconic comment of one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers.
| Montoya was captured by an elite army unit during a pre-dawn raid on a farm where his mother and uncle were staying, in Valle del Cauca province. He offered to bribe troops $5 million - the same amount as the US bounty on his head - to let him go. Nobody took him up on it. |
He offered to bribe troops $5 million (£2.5 million) - the same amount as the US bounty on his head - to let him go, said Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian defence minister.
Nobody took him up on it. He faces extradition to the United States within two months to stand trial on charges of leading the Norte del Valle cartel, considered ColombiaÂ’s most dangerous drug trafficking organisation, and of shipping hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States and Europe.
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