Colombian and U.S. authorities today arrested eight people suspected by the United States of shipping 1,100 pounds of heroin per year, the latest in a series of recent blows to major traffickers.
The five men and three women were arrested in Cali, 160 miles (250 km) southeast of the capital, Bogota, said a police spokesman. The heroin had an estimated street value of between $40 million and $90 million.
Two other people were arrested in Argentina, he said.
The raid comes one day after suspected Colombian drug lord Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya - believed to be second-in-command of the Norte del Valle cartel, Colombia's largest - was extradited to the United States from Panama to face drug charges.
Colombia, torn by four decades of war, is the world's largest producer of cocaine and a growing provider of heroin to the United States. Cali is home to many drug cartels, including the powerful Norte Del Valle.
President Alvaro Uribe, a close US ally in the war on drugs, has cracked down on traffickers and stepped up the pace of extraditions to the United States, where they face tougher jail sentences than in Colombia's corrupt justice system.