REPUTED COCAINE LORD IS ARRESTED AFTER MANHUNT IN COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, Colombia, April 21 -- Luiz Fernando da Costa, who rose from a
slum-dwelling drug peddler to become Brazil's most notorious cocaine
lord, was arrested in the Colombian jungle today after a massive
manhunt by army troops, the armed forces reported today.

Mr. da Costa's arrest came in dramatic fashion, after a Cessna in
which he was a traveling on Thursday in southeastern Colombia was
forced down by a Colombian Air Force fighter. Mr. da Costa fled on
foot with four other men, and the pilot of the plane later identified
one of the men as Mr. da Costa. That triggered a manhunt involving 300
army troops who eventually cornered him in Vichada Province near the
Venezuelan border.

"I would say he is one of the most important narco-traffickers in the
world," the Colombian defense minister, Luis Fernando Ramirez, said in
an interview. "He is the Pablo Escobar of Brazil."

Soon after Mr. de Costa's plane went down, a Colombian fighter jet
shot down a second Cessna that army officials said was dispatched to
rescue him. Mr. Ramirez said the pilot of that plane had ignored
orders by a Colombian pilot to land.

Top Colombian Army officials have insisted that Mr. da Costa, 33, had
been selling arms to leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, or FARC, in exchange for cocaine. The rebels have
adamantly denied it, saying they merely tax drug-trafficking operations.

The arrest was the culmination of a two-month antinarcotics effort in
southeastern Colombia that army officials say highlighted connections
between Mr. da Costa's organization and the FARC.

In February, the army arrested several Brazilians and confiscated
documents that officials said showed how the rebels received arms from
Mr. da Costa in exchange for a Brazilian-bound shipment of cocaine.

"This was successful because we were able to break apart the operation
that the FARC and Fernandinho have had in that part of the
country,"Mr. Ramirez said, referring to Mr. da Costa by his nickname.

"I think this is the beginning of the end of those cartels operating
on the frontier of Brazil," he said. "This will be a serious blow
against the rebels' finances."

Mr. Ramirez said one of the four men, who was arrested Friday, was a
member of the FARC. Another, a Brazilian identified as a drug
trafficker, was arrested with Mr. da Costa. The other two were still
at large this afternoon.

The army's revelations are sure to be uncomfortable for President
Andres Pastrana, who has said in the past that he would break off
peace negotiations with the FARC if hard evidence shows the group is a
narco-trafficking organization.

Mr. Pastrana has come under heavy criticism from the military and much
of Colombian society for his handling of peace negotiations with the
37-year-old rebel group.

Brazilian law enforcement officials have said Mr. da Costa built a
drug empire though a mix of street smarts and ruthlessness, rising
from a marijuana dealer to a major cocaine trafficker linked to
guns-for-drugs deals.

Mr. da Costa had escaped from a Brazilian prison soon after being
jailed in 1996, and army officials here said that he had been in the
Colombian jungle since 1999.

Mr. da Costa's last few weeks of freedom, however, were difficult. He
had been wounded in a gunfight with soldiers and had to have two
fingers amputated, Mr. Ramirez said.