BRAZIL'S TOP DRUG LORD DEPORTED FROM COLOMBIA

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's most powerful drug lord arrived
under heavy police guard in the country's capital on Wednesday, five
days after his capture in Colombia for alleged arms and drug links
with leftist rebels.

Luiz Fernando da Costa, 33, left Bogota in the middle of the night
aboard a Brazilian Air Force plane for Brasilia, where he was bundled
into a vehicle and taken to Federal Police headquarters in a four-car
motorcade with a helicopter flying overhead.

Fernandinho Beira-Mar (Freddy Seashore), as he is known from his days
as the kingpin of Rio de Janeiro's shantytown drug trade, had been on
the run from Brazilian justice since 1996 when he escaped from prison.

Da Costa was serving nine-year and 21-year sentences for domestic
cocaine trafficking and faces charges of trafficking and homicide.
Federal Police are also trying to charge him with international drug
and arms trafficking and money laundering.

Colombian authorities believed da Costa received one-third of the
country's cocaine production from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, which made around $10 million a month to finance
its guerrilla warfare. After his dramatic arrest -- involving 3,200
soldiers and two months of tracking -- da Costa told the army he
bought 200 tons of cocaine a year from the FARC and provided the
group with arms and ammunition.

But Colombian officials feared they did not have enough security to
keep da Costa inside prison or to keep him alive. One senior
government official called him ``a hot potato''.

Da Costa's testimony also threatened to complicate peace talks to end
the 37-year-old war between the Colombian army and Latin America's
oldest and most powerful guerrilla force, which has left more than
40,000 dead in the last 10 years.

The rebel group has admitted to ``taxing'' drug barons, but denies
direct involvement in the cocaine trade. And the government has given
the FARC the benefit of the doubt up to now.

Da Costa is expected to give a statement to Federal Police on
Wednesday before two judges decide whether to send him to Rio de
Janeiro or to Belo Horizonte, where he escaped from jail, said a
police spokeswoman.

Doctors were brought in to examine Da Costa, who arrived wearing a
bulletproof vest and had his arm in a sling after he was injured
during his capture.

``The situation is quite ugly and he is in a lot of pain,'' said the
police spokeswoman.