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. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager