Venezuela arrests Colombian drug kingpin

A Colombian drug kingpin with a $5 million US price tag on his head has been arrested in Venezuela and is to be extradited to the United States to face trafficking charges, officials said. The arrest of Maximiliano Bonilla-Orozco at his home in Venezuela's third largest city of Valencia on Sunday was announced, perhaps not coincidentally, during a visit by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. After a five-hour meeting at the presidential palace, Santos thanked Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez for the "welcome gift" of capturing "a very high-value" drug trafficker "who has caused terrible damage to our country." Venezuelan Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami said Bonilla-Orozco, 39, would be extradited to the United States, where he was charged with drug trafficking in a 2008 indictment in a New York court. The United States accuses Bonilla-Orozco of trafficking several tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States, and transporting more than $25 million in drug-related proceeds from the United States to Mexico. "Maximiliano Bonilla-Orozco is the leader of an extensive transnational narcotics exportation and transportation organization that distributes thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, to the United States," a US State Department profile says. El Aissami said the decision to extradite Bonilla-Orozco to the United States was made jointly by Chavez and Santos and added that Venezuela would not be claiming the $5 million reward offered by the US government. "Bonilla-Orozco receives cocaine directly from various sources in Colombia, including the rebel group Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN), and has dealt extensively with the violent Mexican drug trafficking organization, Los Zetas," the US State Department profile says. "It is believed that the organization utilizes a network of warehouses and front companies to purchase 'cover loads,' or legitimate goods that are stored and transported with the narcotics to mask the narcotics shipment." El Aissami said Bonilla-Orozco would be extradited to the United States "as soon as US authorities announce their willingness" to pick him up. The move is unusual as Venezuela cut off anti-drug cooperation with the United States in 2009 and ties have been strained for years between Washington and Caracas. In September, Washington accused four Venezuelan officials, including a general, of aiding Colombian guerrillas and put them on a list of narcotics kingpins subject to sanctions -- a move Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro slammed at the time as "abusive." Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine, with 410 tons annually, according to the latest UN report, although Peru has surpassed Colombia in terms of land under cultivation of coca. The main market for Colombian cocaine is the United States. Traffickers have taken to creative methods, including sending semi-submersible vessels to Central America full of drugs that are then sent north. Venezuela and Colombia had tense relations under Santos's predecessor, but Santos and Chavez have markedly improved ties. "It's been nearly 16 months since we restored relations and everything is sailing smoothly," Santos said Monday, speaking with Chavez at his side outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. Former Colombia president Alvaro Uribe in July 2010 accused Venezuela of harboring Colombian guerrillas, prompting Caracas to break off relations with Bogota in a crisis that put the two countries on a war footing.