Accused Drug Lord Surrenders to Colombian Police
The alleged last leader of the world’s largest cocaine cartel turned himself in Sunday after dodging police for years.
Helmer Herrera surrendered near the southwestern city of Cali. Six other reputed leaders of the Cali cartel, identified on wanted posters along with Herrera, were arrested last year.
“I want to sort out the legal problems I have with the authorities,” Herrera, 45, said at the headquarters of the Cali police’s anti-drug unit.
The surrender came after months of sporadic negotiations between prosecutors and Herrera’s lawyers.
Herrera faces charges of illegal enrichment and drug trafficking, a spokesman for the prosecutor general’s office said on condition of anonymity. The spokesman said Herrera turned himself over to Gen. Jose Serrano, the national police chief, in the town of Yumbo on the outskirts of Cali.
Herrera dodged dozens of police raids on his farms and businesses even after the other alleged kingpins were jailed in a crackdown pushed for by the United States.
For years, Herrera was heavily involved in setting up and maintaining cocaine distribution networks in New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
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