Pubdate: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 Source: Reuters (Wire) Copyright: 2001 Reuters Limited Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/364 Author: Katherine Baldwin BRAZIL'S TOP DRUG LORD DEPORTED FROM COLOMBIA BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's most powerful drug lord arrived under heavy police guard in the country's capital on Wednesday, five days after his capture in Colombia for alleged arms and drug links with leftist rebels. Luiz Fernando da Costa, 33, left Bogota in the middle of the night aboard a Brazilian Air Force plane for Brasilia, where he was bundled into a vehicle and taken to Federal Police headquarters in a four-car motorcade with a helicopter flying overhead. Fernandinho Beira-Mar (Freddy Seashore), as he is known from his days as the kingpin of Rio de Janeiro's shantytown drug trade, had been on the run from Brazilian justice since 1996 when he escaped from prison. Da Costa was serving nine-year and 21-year sentences for domestic cocaine trafficking and faces charges of trafficking and homicide. Federal Police are also trying to charge him with international drug and arms trafficking and money laundering. Colombian authorities believed da Costa received one-third of the country's cocaine production from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which made around $10 million a month to finance its guerrilla warfare. After his dramatic arrest -- involving 3,200 soldiers and two months of tracking -- da Costa told the army he bought 200 tons of cocaine a year from the FARC and provided the group with arms and ammunition. But Colombian officials feared they did not have enough security to keep da Costa inside prison or to keep him alive. One senior government official called him ``a hot potato''. Da Costa's testimony also threatened to complicate peace talks to end the 37-year-old war between the Colombian army and Latin America's oldest and most powerful guerrilla force, which has left more than 40,000 dead in the last 10 years. The rebel group has admitted to ``taxing'' drug barons, but denies direct involvement in the cocaine trade. And the government has given the FARC the benefit of the doubt up to now. Da Costa is expected to give a statement to Federal Police on Wednesday before two judges decide whether to send him to Rio de Janeiro or to Belo Horizonte, where he escaped from jail, said a police spokeswoman. Doctors were brought in to examine Da Costa, who arrived wearing a bulletproof vest and had his arm in a sling after he was injured during his capture. ``The situation is quite ugly and he is in a lot of pain,'' said the police spokeswoman. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe