Colombia Nabs Drug Suspect Wanted for Killing U.S. Informant

Colombian police arrested a reputed narco trafficker wanted by the United States in the killing of a DEA informant.

Fernando Arroyabe, alias “Maquina,” was detained early Monday at his country home in the central province of Cundinamarca, the police said in a statement.

The investigation leading to his arrest began four months ago after an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was murdered in Bogota.

Federal prosecutors have charged Arroyabe with killing the informant, identified by Colombian police only as “El Gordo” (Fatso), and with smuggling 10 tons of cocaine into the United States.

Colombian police said Arroyabe has been involved on both sides of a struggle between the Los Rastrojos and Los Urabeños gangs to control the drug trade in the northern part of the country.

Like his father, Arroyabe is a well-known cattle rancher in the northwestern province of Antioquia. “Maquina” also made a fortune selling helicopters and was a close associate of brothers Javier Antonio and Luis Enrique Calle Serna, who founded Los Rastrojos.

But after gunmen on the Calle Serna brothers payroll killed the elder Arroyabe at the Flower Fair in Medellin in 2009, “Maquina” decided to avenge his father’s death by helping Los Urabeños obtain weapons, armored weapons and sophisticated communications gear, according to the police statement.