Venezuela says it captures suspected drug smuggler wanted in US on cocaine trafficking charges

Venezuela captures drug suspect wanted by US

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela has captured a suspected Colombian drug smuggler who is wanted on cocaine charges in the United States and who has allegedly collaborated with Mexico’s Zetas drug gang, the justice minister said Thursday.

Tareck El Aissami held up the arrest of Luis Frank Tello Candelo, 47, better known as “El Negro Frank,” as proof of Venezuela’s determination to combat organized crime and drug trafficking.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas did not immediately answer telephone calls seeking comment.

El Aissami did not provide details regarding Tello Candelo’s purported ties to the Zetas, initially formed by an elite group of Mexican soldiers who deserted to become hit men for the Gulf Cartel. The Zetas have since turned to drug trafficking and are fighting their former allies.

Venezuela is a major hub for traffickers smuggling Colombian cocaine to the United States and Europe. U.S. officials have repeatedly accused President Hugo Chavez’s government of not doing enough to stem the flow of Colombian cocaine through the South American nation.

Washington has even accused Venezuela of collaborating with Colombian rebel groups that profit from drug trafficking, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army.

A report this month by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime identified Venezuela as the departure point for just over half of all sea shipments of cocaine headed for Europe.

It also said “many undocumented air flights leave the country, and all the clandestine air shipments of cocaine detected in West Africa appear to have originated in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.” The report also said much of the cocaine flown to Honduras comes from Venezuela.

Venezuela counters that it’s doing everything possible to curb drug smuggling.

Following a meeting with U.N. General Assembly president Ali Abdessalam Treki in Caracas, El Aissami said the report’s statistics “don’t correspond with reality” because they “certainly fail to reflect the effort our government has made” to combat trafficking and organized crime.

El Aissami said Venezuela is “a victim” of narcotics trafficking from Colombia — the world’s leading cocaine producer — to the United States, the top consumer of illegal drugs.

Authorities have seized close to 30 metric tons of illegal drugs so far this year and captured 10 powerful traffickers, El Aissami added.