COLOMBIAN REBEL CHIEF IN U.S. CUSTODY

A Colombian rebel leader wanted by U.S. law enforcement authorities on
drug-trafficking charges has been arrested in Suriname and flown to the
United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday.

U.S. authorities identified him as Carlos Bolas, a leader of the Colombian
Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). He will be arraigned in U.S. District
Court, the DEA said.

"For the first time we have not only indicted a member of a terrorist
organization involved in drug trafficking, but we have also arrested him,"
said Asa Hutchinson, the DEA director.

The DEA took custody of Bolas on Tuesday after Surinamese authorities
arrested him for immigration violations. Aware that he was wanted in the
United States, they expelled him and turned him over to the DEA.

Carlos Bolas is a nickname. Officials in Suriname said his real name was
Rojas. Colombian military officials, however, identified him as Eugenio
Vargas Perdomo, 32, second in command of a FARC combat unit.

In March, the DEA said, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Bolas
and other FARC members on charges of conspiring to manufacture and import
cocaine to the United States, in order to obtain money, weapons, and
supplies for the FARC.

The FARC is the larger of two leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia.