POLICE ARREST COLOMBIAN DRUG KINGPIN

BOGOTA -- The last major Colombian drug lord who was still at large has been
arrested in the Caribbean port of Barranquilla, authorities said Sunday.

Alberto Orlandez Gamboa, 42, who is known by his alias ``El Caracol'' or
``The Snail,'' was arrested late Saturday and flown to police headquarters
in the capital Bogota Sunday.

National Police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said Orlandez, who was wanted
on trafficking, illicit enrichment and kidnapping charges, was the reputed
chief of the so-called Coast Cartel drug gang and was at the top of the
``most wanted'' list in Colombia.

``I'm very happy about this capture because it practically puts an end to
the large (Colombian drug) organizations,'' Serrano said.

With the demise of the Cali drug cartel, whose leaders have all been jailed
or killed since 1995, Orlandez -- a former Cali Cartel enforcer -- had built
the Coast Cartel into Colombia's most powerful drug gang, Serrano said.

He did not elaborate. But security sources said a series of police wiretaps
had pinpointed the location of Orlandez in Barranquilla, the leading port on
Colombia's northern Caribbean coast and added that it worked closely with
drug gangs in Mexico and Central America.

He was wearing a wig and carrying a false passport and about $5,000 in cash
when he was arrested at about 5 p.m. Saturday along with two bodyguards, the
sources said.

They said the Coast Cartel controlled a network of lucrative drug smuggling
routes operating along Colombia's Caribbean coast and added that it worked
closely with drug gangs in Mexico and Central America.

``We've put an end to the Coast Cartel,'' said Serrano, who spoke to
reporters in New York where he was attending a special anti-drug meeting of
the United Nations General Assembly.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett