ARMY CAPTURES CARTEL LEADER IN COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, Colombia - (AP) -- Soldiers swarmed onto a farm on Monday and
captured one of the world's most wanted drug lords hiding in bushes in
his underwear. Colombian officials called it their biggest drug war
victory since the killing of the Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar
in 1993.

Diego Montoya, who sits with Osama bin Laden on the F.B.I.'s 10 most
wanted list and has a $5 million bounty on his head, is accused of
leading the Norte del Valle cartel. It is deemed Colombia's most
dangerous drug gang and is accused of shipping hundreds of tons of
cocaine to the United States since the 1990s.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said at a news conference at
Bogota's airport that Mr. Montoya was responsible for 1,500 killings
in his career.

"Drug traffickers take note: this is the future that awaits you," Mr.
Santos said before Mr. Montoya, 49, limped out of an air force plane
escorted by five commandos.

Mr. Montoya put up no resistance when the army cornered him in the
cartel's stronghold of Valle del Cauca Province, in western Colombia,
officials said. He is to be questioned before being extradited to the
United States, a process that Mr. Santos said would take at most two
months.

After months of planning, elite commandos raided the small farm before
dawn on Monday and arrested Mr. Montoya along with his mother, an
uncle and three other cartel members, said the army chief, Gen. Mario
Montoya, who is not related.

The government has been closing in on the cartel since last year, when
soldiers killed eight members of a militia believed to be protecting
Mr. Montoya.

Mr. Santos said the operation had been kept top secret to avoid leaks
and had been run by an army commando unit that works with prosecutors
to bring down the cartel.

The United States welcomed the news. "Colombia's capture of cocaine
kingpin Diego Montoya shows what can be accomplished by a government
that is relentless, focused and skilled in the effort to dismantle
threats to its democracy," said John P. Walters, the White House drug
czar.