Colombia’s most wanted man, paramilitary leader “Otoniel,” has been arrested by the security forces, the government said Saturday.
According to newspaper El Colombiano, the commander of paramilitary group AGC was captured in an operation in Necocli, a municipality on the Caribbean coast.
The government’s peace commissioner, Emilio Archila, confirmed the arrest.
The arrest of Otoniel ends the largest manhunt since Pablo Escobar escaped from prison in 1991.
“Operation Agamenon,” which sought to capture or kill the AGC chief, was announced by former President Juan Manuel Santos in February 2012 but without results for almost 10 years.
Colombia’s most embarrassing manhunt since Pablo Escobar
The US Government considers the AGC Colombia’s largest drug trafficking organization and promised a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Otoniel in 2017.
The paramilitary commander spent most of his life underground, initially as a guerrilla of now-demobilized guerrilla group EPL and later as a member of now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC.
Otoniel joined AGC founder “Don Mario” in 2006 after both abandoned the demobilization program with the AUC in 2006.
The AGC chief became the sole commander of Colombia’s most powerful paramilitary group after the death of his brother, “Giovanny,” in January 2012.