The alleged head of assassins for the Colombia’s largest drug cartel, “Los Rastrojos,” was extradited to the United States, police announced Thursday.
Carlos Hugo Garcia, alias “Chocolate,” was captured in June 2011 while trying to flee to Ecuador via the Pacific Ocean. He will appear in front of a New York court on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.
Chocolate reportedly led a group of 150 assassins for the drug trafficking organization, which largely operates along Colombia’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts, as well as along the Ecuadorean and Venezuelan borders.
Security forces have recently dealt a number of blows to the crime syndicate. Last month, authorities captured Hector Jairo Bermudez Rios, known as “El Paisa,” the alleged leader of local operations, including extortion and assassinations, in the northern Catatumbo region along the Venezuelan border.
Venezuelan authorities reportedly arrested one of the group’s top two commanders, Diego Perez Henao, alias “Diego Rastrojo,” in the beginning of June. According to local media, the other top leader, Javier Antonio Calle Serna, alias “Comba,” turned himself over to U.S. authorities on the island of Aruba, off the coast of Venezuela, in the early May.
The only remaining commander of the original Rastrojos command structure is now Luis Enrique Calle Serna.