Colombia Arrests Wife of Reputed Top Trafficker

The wife of Colombia’s reputed No. 1 fugitive drug trafficker was arrested on suspicion of having links to massive money-laundering operations, police said Friday.

Luz Adriana Luz, a former beauty queen, is the wife of Justo Pastor Perafan, a former army sergeant said to have built a $12-billion fortune through drug trafficking.

She was arrested carrying false papers and more than $14,000 cash in the northwest city of Medellin on Thursday afternoon, a police spokesman said.

Colombian authorities are offering a $500,000 reward for the capture of Perafan, who has businesses in Colombia, Spain, Italy and Russia. Police say Luz claimed to represent one of Perafan’s businesses, a geological surveying company that worked for foreign multinational companies and the state oil company.

Last month, Defense Minister Guillermo Alberto Gonzalez was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had received a check for $3,000 from Perafan in the early 1990s.