Drug baron Daniel Barrera was captured yesterday in Venezuela in a joint operation between Colombian, Venezuelan, British and US intelligence services.
Barrera, nicknamed “Crazy Barrera” was captured in San Cristobal near the Colombian border in the southwest of Venezuela.
The operation kicked off on 6th August when Colombian authorities warned their Venezuelan counterparts of Barrera’s presence on their territory and involved 69 wiretaps and 14 intelligence teams mobilised over 45 days.
“He was perhaps the most sought druglord in recent times, having dedicated 20 years of his life to hurting Colombia and the world and to all type of crimes and perverse alliances with the paramilitary and the FARC,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in a press conference organised to announce the capture.
Barrera was arrested under an Interpol warrant, with a US$5m reward attached, and had been identified as a key target since 2007 by former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. Barrera’s connections within the Colombian police forces are believed to have allowed him to evade authorities until yesterday.
The Venezuelan National Anti-Drug Office (ONA) in touch with the CIA, MI6 and Colombian police, carried out “the most important arrest yet in Venezuela” in the words of Venezuelan Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami who also called Barrera “the most wanted drug trafficker in the world”.
The capture was celebrated as a victory by all countries involved in the operation and is seen as a positive parenthesis amidst tense diplomatic relations between Venezuela on the one side, and Colombia and the US on the other.
Colombia, with neighbours Peru and Bolivia, is one of the largest cocaine producers in the world and produced 345 tonnes of cocaine in 2011 according to the UN. The vast majority of drugs produced in Latin America find their way to the US where they are sold on the largest drug market in the world.
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