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Showing posts with label Venezuela. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Venezuela. Show all posts

Saturday, 2 February 2008

Wilber Varela, alias "Soap",New Bosses known as 'Red Shirt' '06'

Officials confirmed the body is that of Wilber Varela, alias "Soap", a man with a long and bloody history as leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel.
While Varela had a $5m (£2.5m) bounty from the US on his head, the evidence suggests he was killed by his own men.
His cocaine smuggling cartel was the successor to the infamous Medellin cartel of Pablo Escobar.
It is believed that Varela's cartel moved thousands of tonnes of cocaine into the US and Europe.
US and Colombian intelligence agencies said that Varela had been hiding in Venezuela for at least a year, running his operations out of their reach.
Venezuela is now the principle transit nation for Colombian cocaine and does not co-operate with international anti-drugs efforts.
Colombian intelligence sources said that communications intercepts suggested that Varela was killed by some of his own men, a not unexpected end for a man who started in the drug business as an a assassin.
Last year, the other three leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel were captured, in effect bringing an end to the organisation.
However, a new generation of traffickers is already stepping up to take their place.
The security forces have the aliases of two men believed to be picking up the pieces within the cartel and keeping the business moving.
They are known only as '06' and 'Red Shirt' and the hunt is on for them and their real identities as a new chapter in the war on drugs begins.

Friday, 1 February 2008

Wilber Varela aka Jabon

The body of Wilber Varela, known as "Jabon" or "Soap," was found on Wednesday in a hotel room in Merida state in neighboring Venezuela, said a Colombian police source who asked not to be identified.
The boss of Colombia's biggest remaining cocaine cartel was killed by gunfire in Venezuela in an apparent settling of accounts between drug gangs, Colombian security forces said on Friday.
"We have intelligence information that the person found dead in Venezuela is Jabon," the source said.
Varela, a former police sergeant wanted for extradition by the U.S. government for helping to smuggle tonnes of cocaine to the United States, was one of the last Colombian drug kingpins at large after last year's arrest of Diego "Don Diego" Montoya.
The two had battled for control of the Norte del Valle cartel, a violent rivalry that left hundreds of people dead.
The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward leading to the arrest of Varela, who got his nickname from a brand of soap with the same name.
The Norte del Valle gang, based near the western city of Cali, is the only Colombian cartel that still controls all areas of the business from cultivation of coca plants to production of cocaine and its exportation. (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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