The World : Bogota Seizes Drug Suspect

A Colombian described as the most important drug suspect seized in Colombia’s six-week-old crackdown on cocaine trafficking was flown to Bogota to face drug and smuggling charges. Evaristo Porras Ardila, 41, who reportedly oversaw cocaine laboratories for the powerful Medellin cartel, was brought from the southwestern city of Pasto, where he had been held after being deported from Ecuador. Porras is not on the list of 12 “most wanted” suspects whose extradition is sought by the United States. But Colombian officials said he is the most important drug suspect caught in the crackdown, and the Defense Ministry described him as a “trafficker of the first order.”