Leading Colombian drug kingpin turns himself in

May 07, 2012|Reuters

* Drug suspect surrenders to U.S. DEA

* U.S. helping Colombia fight drug trafficking

BOGOTA, May 7 (Reuters) - A Colombian suspected of running a
violent cocaine cartel, one of the country's most-wanted men,
has surrendered to U.S. drug officials and could get a lighter
sentence if he helps authorities fight drug trafficking,
Colombian police said on Monday.

Javier Antonio Calle, for whom the U.S. government was
offering a $5-million reward, turned himself in to the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) on the Caribbean island of Aruba and
was flown to New York on Friday, authorities said.

"As a result of ... the National Government's efforts to
track down all drug traffickers, in the past few hours Javier
Antonio Calle turned himself in," said Jose Roberto Leon, deputy
director of Colombia's police force.

Calle, 43, is considered the kingpin of "Los Rastrojos" (The
Stubbles), a violent criminal network that controls some key
smuggling routes and is believed responsible for sending several
tonnes of cocaine every year into the United States.

According to high-ranking Colombian police authorities,
several drug traffickers in the Andean country are in talks to
hand themselves in to the DEA, which is offering them lighter
jail sentences in the United States if they give tip-offs on
other drug traffickers and their smuggling routes.

The killing of Wilber Alirio Varela, alias "Jabon" (Soap), a
rival cocaine trafficker, allowed Javier Antonio Calle and his
brother Luis Enrique, to gain control of some key routes in the
Colombian Pacific coast and cement ties with Mexico's Sinaloa
drug cartel.

Javier Antonio is still at large, but their brother, Juan
Carlos, was arrested in Ecuador in March.

Aided by billions of dollar in U.S. aid, Colombia, one of
the world's biggest cocaine exporters, has made strides in
recent years against Marxist guerrillas and paramilitary groups
that finance themselves with drug sales.

Some of them have strong ties with Mexican drug cartels.

(Reporting By Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Eduardo Garcia,
Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Cynthia Osterman)