Top US drug suspect held in Venezuela

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: AP

One of the US government's most-wanted drug trafficking suspects has been captured in Venezuela, state television has reported.

The United States has offered a reward of up to $US5 million ($A5.4 million) for the arrest of Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco, and Venezuela's state television channel confirmed his capture.

Lawyer Freddy Ferrer told the private TV channel Globovision that Gonzalez is innocent and criticised his "illegal and illegitimate detention" on Saturday by a counter-drug squad at a ranch in western Venezuela.

US authorities accuse Gonzalez of leading a drug ring known as the Guajira cartel and being behind the smuggling of many tonnes of cocaine to the US in the past decade.

The US State Department also says Gonzalez was reportedly a member of a right-wing Colombian paramilitary faction involved in smuggling arms from Europe through Venezuela to Colombia in the La Guajira border region.

A newscaster on state television said Gonzalez was captured "together with 48 presumably paramilitary suspects". He said the justice minister would provide details on Sunday, but no further information was immediately available.

Law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case could not be reached, and aides to the justice minister and top counter-drug officials did not immediately return calls.

Gonzalez was arrested in the western hamlet of Caja Seca south of Lake Maracaibo, according to the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional.



Read more: http://news.theage.com.au/top-us-drug-suspect-held-in-venezuela/20080310-1ycs.html

[Selatius]

1. Good thing we burned our bridges with Venezuela years ago, huh?

The US gov't would be lucky if he is extradited instead of prosecuted for arms smuggling and drug running inside Venezuela by Venezuelan courts.

[AlphaCentauri]

2. We probably will heard about the NY and New Jersey Cartels n/t

[fshrink]

3. Now we have a better understanding

of the recent events in the area. Reality is showing through the thick fabric of the spectacle.

[AlphaCentauri]

4. you bet n/t

[Judi Lynn]

5. He's a right-wing paramilitary guy. That means he's Colombian.

He's not likely to be anyone the actual Venezuelan government would have been protecting, considering paramilitaries have also attempted to assassinate Hugo Chavez.

More on this clown :

Automatically translated text:
Venezuelan Police capture narcoparamilitar Hermágoras Gonzalez Polanco
By YVke World VTV Sunday, Sea. 09 2008 at 5:49 pm


He is accused of trafficking in weapons and be linked to Colombian paramilitary groups. Unofficially, the state VTV channel stated that next to him was caught 48 suspected paramilitaries. The minister Rodríguez Chacín give a press conference on the matter.

9 Mar 2008. Troops Venezuelan police captured the alleged Colombian drug trafficker and paramilitary Hermágoras Gonzalez Polanco, accused of sending tons of cocaine to the United States, trafficking in arms and be linked to Colombian paramilitary groups. Unofficially, the state VTV channel stated that next to him was caught 48 suspected paramilitaries.

He is the brother of Eudo Gonzalez Polanco, who died last February 10, 2004 in an operation of the Disip and the Scientific, Criminal and (Cicpc), in which seven others died.

VTV reported that the Minister of Interior and Justice, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, to refer the matter at a press conference originally convened for this Sunday, but was postponed for Monday. According to different sources, Gonzalez Polanco has links with the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) and the Cartel of La Guajira, an organization accused of having links with drug traffickers from the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean countries.

The website of The National asserts that the arrest was carried out by troops of the National Guard in the town of Caja Seca, between Merida and Zulia states, from where he was transferred to the headquarters of the Disip in Caracas.

According to press releases, the brothers Gonzalez Polanco among its strategic partners to former Colombian senator Samuel Santander Lopesierra, alias "Marlboro Man", extradited to the United States. The Guajira Cartel operates in the northern border with Colombia and Venezuela is attributed to send several tons of cocaine annually to the United States and weapons trafficking operations from Europe through Venezuela to the Colombian paramilitary squads.

Gonzalez Polanco is also linked to Solomon Camacho Mora, whom the American authorities responsible for introducing into the nation several tons of cocaine, including nine that he seized between 1999 and 2000, as well as activities "narcolavado" in the Dominican Republic. The fugitive was arrested in Colombia since 2002 on charges that they linked to a murder, and in U.S. courts of New York and New Jersey after he was charged with "narcolavado and drug trafficking."

http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2008/03/82482.php



Gonzalez Polanco

~~~~ click for photo ~~~~ ~~~~click~~~~

Former Colombian Senator Samuel Santander Lopesierra, former partner

[AlphaCentauri]

7. Spanish language news papers call him Colombian while english media call him Venezuelan

Reputed Venezuelan trafficker busted
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/10/reputed_venezuelan_trafficker_busted/7523/

Detienen en Venezuela al narco colombiano González Polanco
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2008/03/09/detienen-en-venezuela-al-narco-colombiano-gonzalez-polanco

[Judi Lynn]

11. You're right! Clearly! This spin guys NEVER sleep. They're all over every event.

What a stupid waste of time for grown people, cranking out disinformation.

[fascisthunter]

6. And Because of This, Bush Wants to Label Venezuela as a Terrorist Nation

hahahahahahahahaha... Bush, you piece of shit!

[EFerrari]

8. And Chavez didn't just shoot all forty of them?

He's enabling terrorists, for sure. :sarcasm:

[AlphaCentauri]

10. he does not wan to to waste "smart" bombs on RW idiots n/t

[goforit]

9. Could Gonzalez work for the Bushco drug cartel?