Colombian police have captured the country's most wanted drug lord, Daniel Rendon Herrera, known as "Don Mario", the government said today.
Earlier this year, Herrera offered his gunmen nearly $1,000 for every police officer they murdered, as authorities closed in on his criminal network.
His style recalled that of Colombia's most infamous cocaine baron, Pablo Escobar, who waged an all-out war against the state in the 1980s until he was shot by security forces in 1993.
Colombia had offered a $2 million reward to anyone who helped capture Herrera, who was taken by police in the northern province of Antioquia.
He is the brother of a jailed paramilitary warlord known as "El Aleman", or "The German", a nickname he earned for his reputation of enforcing strict discipline among his troops.
Rendon Herrera is accused of exporting tonnes of cocaine from the Caribbean coast near Panama, an area governed by his brother in the 1990s when right-wing paramilitaries battled for control of territory against leftist guerrillas.
Colombia has become less violent under President Alvaro Uribe, who has used billions of dollars in US military aid to battle the guerrillas and disarm the paramilitaries.
But the country continue exporting about 600 tonnes of cocaine every year, according to the United Nations.
Reuters