CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan soldiers this week captured alleged Colombian drug lord Salomon Camacho, known as “Big Papa,” who has a $5 million price on his head in the United States for smuggling cocaine.
Rewards of $5 million are usually only offered for senior drug traffickers and cartel leaders.
“We got him this week and we will deport him,” a source at the anti-drug agency said on Sunday. Anti-narcotics soldiers and secret police made the arrest in Valencia, the government said in a brief statement. Valencia is an industrial city in the west of the South American country.
Formerly a partner of the deceased leader of the Medellin cartel Pablo Escobar, 65-year-old Camacho brought 9 tonnes of cocaine into the United States between 1999 and 2000, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.