Colombian authorities say they arrested the person in charge of the finances of paramilitary drug lord “El Cuchillo,” one of the country’s most wanted men.
According to the authorities, Jairo Soto Garcia, alias “JJ,” is the “financial muscle” of Cuchillo’s organization, which is mostly active in south-eastern Colombia.
Garcia was arrested on a ranch in the central Meta department.
Garcia is one of Colombia’s most senior narco-traffickers, who started his career in the drug business in the 1980s as member of the “Cabezones” cartel.
According to the police and army, Garcia is one of the most important men within Cuchillo’s ERPAC, the Colombian Revolutionary Popular Anti-terrorist Army.
The authorities are cracking down on ERPAC, which was named by Human Rights Watch as one of the principle “paramilitary successor” groups, arresting a man thought to be the gang’s chief hitman in August.
Cuchillo, a former commander of the paramilitary AUC, is one of the four most wanted drug lords in Colombia, together with Los Rastrojos leaders Luis Enrique and Javier Calle Serna, a.k.a. the Comba brothers, and Daniel “El Loco” Barrera.