Venezuela deported three Colombian drug lords to the U.S., including Carlos Alberto Renteria Mantilla, alias “Beto,” the former leader of the Norte de Valle cartel and one of the U.S. State Department’s most wanted criminals, reports El Espectador.
Sixty-five-year-old Mantilla, who is thought to have smuggled 5000kgs of cocaine to the U.S. via Mexico since 1990, was arrested last week by a Venezuelan investigation agency with the help of British intelligence.
Beto Renteria is a leader of the Norte de Valle cartel, one of Colombia’s most notorious narco-trafficking organizations, which operates principally out of the Valle del Cauca department in western Colombia. He was the last head of the cartel to be captured.
Another of the deportees, Carlos Alberto Ojeda Herrera, was arrested on May 27 in the coastal city of Lecherias in Anzoategui state for trafficking cocaine and heroin.
Herrera, alias “the engineer of the sea,” is accused of smuggling drugs into the U.S. hidden in truck batteries on board sailboats.
Luis Frank Bello Candelo of the “Los Zetas” cartel was also deported to the U.S. He was initially arrested in Colombia in 1996 by Colombian intelligence agency DAS in conjunction with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Candelo was released in 1999 due to his criminal record disappearing in unknown circumstances, but Venezuelan authorities arrested him again in June of last year.