Pubdate: Fri, 20 Apr 2001
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 2001 Reuters Limited
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/364
Author: Luis Jaime Acosta
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia (Reports about Colombia)

COLOMBIA SAYS IT CLOSES IN ON TOP BRAZIL DRUG LORD

BARRANCOMINAS, Colombia (Reuters) - Troops deep in the Colombian jungle 
have located and are closing in on Brazil's top drug lord, accused of 
selling arms to leftist rebels in exchange for cocaine, the army said on 
Friday.

Luis Fernando da Costa, known by his Brazilian nickname Fernandinho 
Beira-Mar, is believed to be on the run in a thick, jungle region near 
Colombia's border with Venezuela and Brazil.

More than 300 troops fanned out across the area on Friday, while Air Force 
planes and helicopters circled overhead, in an operation Colombia's army 
chief Jorge Enrique Mora said will finally capture the fugitive.

"I have absolute confidence that with troops of the Rapid Deployment Force, 
we will capture Fernandinho," Mora told reporters from the Barrancominas 
military base in southern Colombia, from where he was coordinating the hunt.

On Thursday, a military jet forced down and destroyed a small, propeller 
aircraft near Barrancominas. The army captured on Friday one of five 
passengers who escaped from the plane shortly before its destruction, who 
told the army that Fernandinho had been aboard and now was in the jungle on 
foot.

"They are stuck in the middle of the jungle. They don't have food, they 
don't have equipment, and lack the basics to help them survive," Mora said.

Fernandinho, the former kingpin of Rio de Janeiro's shantytown drug trade, 
escaped from Brazilian prison in 1996. Authorities suspect he has run his 
business from Colombia for up to a year, trading guns and ammunition for 
cocaine.

In February, Colombian troops captured eight Brazilians, including 
Fernandinho's girlfriend, who according to local media reports carried an 
agenda detailing the trade of 560 rifles, 2,252 light arms, explosives and 
ammunition.

Army Accuses Fernandinho

The Army accuses Fernandinho of helping to arm Colombia's largest guerrilla 
force, the 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the 
FARC -- which control the region where the Brazilian allegedly operates.

In a recent interview in Brazilian newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo with FARC 
commander Ivan Rios, the rebel lead said he believed the rebels may have 
collected "taxes" from Fernandinho's drug business -- but denied selling 
him cocaine in exchange for arms. The FARC have long admitted to imposing 
such taxes on industry and drug barons to finance their 37-year-old war to 
impose a communist state.

Mora, who has been searching for Fernandinho since he launched the army 
"Operation Black Cat" in February, said the drug trafficker's capture would 
be crucial to prove FARC complicity in the drug trade, and nab one of the 
top dealers.

"This is the most important objective in operation Black Cat, capturing 
Fernandinho, who is one of the most powerful drug traffickers and most 
important in Brazil and who is coordinating trafficking with the FARC," he 
said.

But Mora warned that he would forgo the key witness in the army fight to 
prove FARC involvement in the drug trade. He said if Fernandinho resists 
arrest, his troops will shoot him down.

"If things do not go the way we had hoped, if we go to capture Fernandinho 
and he resists, then the troops will have to act," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager