DRUG-TRAFFICKING SUSPECT WILL BE TRIED IN VENEZUELA

Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco, Alias Gordito, Also Faces Money
Laundering and False Identity Charges, Officials Say.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Venezuela, Colombia and the United States finally
appear to agree on something: that drug trafficking suspect
Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco is a dangerous felon.

Gonzalez, arrested over the weekend in Venezuela by the nation's
intelligence police force, will be tried in Venezuela on drug
trafficking, money laundering and false identity charges, Interior
Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said at a news conference Monday.

Gonzalez, 48, has been indicted in New Jersey and New York federal
courts on drug trafficking charges and is wanted in Colombia on
suspicion of murder. He has been on an Interpol list of wanted
suspects since 2005.

Gonzalez's importance is underscored by a $5-million reward that the
U.S. State Department had posted for his capture. The Colombian has
been identified as the head of the so-called Guajira cartel, named
for the desolate peninsula that forms Venezuela's northwestern
boundary. The cartel controls as much as one-third of the 250 tons of
cocaine that annually passes through Venezuela on the way to U.S. and
European markets, authorities say.

That passage is said to be facilitated by the so-called Cartel of the
Sun, a group of corrupt Venezuelan army and police officials named
for the solar insignia on the uniforms of the Venezuelan national
guard. Gonzalez's Guajira cartel is said to be closely associated
with the guard.

Gonzalez, whose 230-pound, 5-foot-5-inch frame earned him the
nickname "Gordito," or Fatso, was arrested Saturday at his ranch in
Caja Seca, at the southern end of Lake Maracaibo.

Few details of his arrest have been released, but Venezuelan
authorities have said he was taken into custody by the nation's
investigative police force, known as the Directorate of Intelligence
and Prevention Services.

Attorney Freddy Ferrer Medina, told reporters that his client, when
arrested, was carrying ID badges from the national guard and
Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, and also an
official permit to bear arms.

The lawyer said that the ID badges were legitimate and that
Gonzalez's arrest was illegal because there were no outstanding
charges against him in Zulia state.

Gonzalez long ago moved to Venezuela's western border state of Zulia,
where he owns ranches and other businesses including pharmacies.
Arrested with him were 13 of his employees.

He was born in the Guajiran border town of Maicao in Colombia, where
dealing in contraband is a way of life for many. Gonzalez is believed
to have turned to crime while serving in the so-called Guajira
Peasants' Self-Defense paramilitary and to have moved to Venezuela to
manage the militia's drugs-for-arms trade.

Gonzalez, whose brother was killed in a shootout with police in
Venezuela in 2004, is described by foreign counter-narcotics
officials as ruthless.

Among the Bush administration's complaints about Venezuela in recent
years has been its emergence as a drug-trafficking hub because,
officials say, its security forces have been infiltrated by Colombian
narcos such as Gonzalez.

Venezuela could legally extradite Gonzalez to Colombia or the United
States because he is a Colombian citizen. (Venezuelan law prohibits
the extradition of its citizens.)

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended all cooperation with U.S.
narcotics officials in 2005, describing them as "spies." He
reassigned 40 specially vetted Venezuelan anti-drug police officers
who had been trained in Quantico, Va., to other beats. He did not
expel U.S. agents but has granted fewer work visas.

Meanwhile, drug traffic has quintupled in Venezuela since 2002,
according to the former U.S. ambassador there. U.S. officials such as
White House anti-drug czar John P. Walters have cited Venezuela's lax
enforcement and corruption as reasons.

According to the U.S. State Department's annual drug report released
last month, seizures of illegal drugs in Venezuela "dropped
substantially in 2007 while seizures of drugs coming out of Venezuela
by other countries, including the U.S. and United Kingdom, rose sharply."

U.S. officials contacted Monday said it was too early to say whether
Gonzalez's arrest means the Venezuelan government is clamping down
harder on drug trafficking. "Let's find out more about how and why
[the arrest] happened first," said one, who asked to remain anonymous.