Colombia captures most wanted drug lord in 'biggest blow to cocaine trade since fall of Escobar' - Telegraph.co.uk

"This is the hardest strike to drug trafficking in our country this century," president Ivan Duque said in a message, adding that the arrest was "only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar," the notorious Colombian narco-trafficking kingpin.

Colombia's police chief Jorge Vargas said during a press conference that authorities carried out "an important satellite operation with agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom.".

The Colombian government blames the group - financed mainly through drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion - for being one of the main drivers of the worst bout of nationwide violence since the signing of a peace pact with FARC guerillas in 2016.

Colombia is the world's top producer of cocaine, with the United States as its principal market, despite half a century of efforts to clamp down on the drug trade.

In remote areas where there is little government presence, criminal groups like the Gulf Clan, dissident FARC guerrillas and leftist ELN rebels fight bloody turf battles to control drug trafficking corridors and illegal mining operations.