DUTCH ARREST SUSPECTED COLOMBIAN DRUGS BARON

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) Dutch authorities said on Thursday they had arrested
a Colombian man who is suspected of being a leading member of that
country's Cali cocaine cartel.

The 45yearold man, identified only by the initials A.L.Q.B., was arrested
on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao on Tuesday and was flown to the
Netherlands on Christmas Day.

"The arrest of Q.B. marks an important success in the fight against the
Colombian drugs mafia," the office of the public prosecutor in The Hague
said in a statement.

The suspect will be prosecuted for organizing three cocaine shipments to
the Netherlands in 1991 and 1992 and could face a maximum sentence of 16
years jail if convicted.

Prosecutor Liesbeth Horstink told Reuters the suspect was also one of the
most wanted men in the United States in connection with drugsmuggling
offenses.

She said U.S. authorities had been notified of his arrest but had not yet
filed an extradition request.

The man was arrested in a secret operation by Dutch police on his arrival
in Curacao where he had been planning to spend Christmas with his family.

Dutch authorities began investigating the operations of the Cali cartel in
the Netherlands in 1994 and have since seized 3,000 tons of Colombian
cocaine and prosecuted 70 people.

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