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No. 5 Drug Lord Slain in Colombia : Police Kill Mastermind of Cocaine Cartel’s War Against Government

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From Associated Press

Police have shot and killed the mastermind of the Medellin cocaine cartel’s 10-month-old war against the government that has left hundreds of people dead, authorities said today.

The killing occurred Wednesday night in an exclusive Medellin suburb, and this morning a car bomb went off near a police post in the same suburb, killing at least two people and injuring 20, the RCN radio network reported. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

John Jairo Arias Tascon, considered the cartel’s No. 5 leader, was killed in the El Poblado neighborhood when police, acting on a tip, found and tried to arrest him, said Gen. Octavio Vargas, operational police director.

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The killing was the biggest victory for the government’s war on drugs since the slaying of Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, the cartel’s No. 2 boss in December.

Vargas did not say if any police were hurt in the shoot-out but he said four more law officers were killed in Medellin on Wednesday night. Their deaths bring to 110 the number of Medellin policemen assassinated so far this year.

Arias, 28, led a terrorist organization that killed scores of Colombians, including an attorney general, a state governor, a judge and a leading journalist, Vargas said.

“He served as chief of the armed organization of the Medellin cartel,” Vargas said, and was considered the cartel’s fifth most important leader.

He said Arias was also responsible for two car bomb attacks on Colombia’s secret police chief, Gen. Miguel Maza Marquez.

The blasts killed at least 70 people, but Maza escaped unharmed.

Authorities blame drug traffickers for killing more than 400 Colombians since August, when the government began a sweeping anti-drug crackdown.

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Vargas said police relied on cooperation from Medellin’s residents to locate Arias. He said the person who provided the crucial information will receive a $200,000 reward.

The terror campaign came in response to a crackdown on the cartels that President Virgilio Barco Vargas began in August after a leading presidential candidate was assassinated and the traffickers were blamed for the killing.

Since then Barco’s administration has extradited 15 drug suspects and confiscated hundreds of properties belonging to the cocaine magnates.

On Wednesday, the government announced that it will dispatch 570 more police officers and soldiers to the trafficking center of Medellin.

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