Colombian police capture head of drug gang

BOGOTA - Colombia's police announced on Wednesday the capture of a leader and eight members of one of the country's largest drug trafficking groups.

Alejandro Beltran, alias "Alex," was arrested in central Colombia during a national police operation. He is reportedly the current leader of the Los Rastrojos gang, which police said has participated in several massacres that left 45 people dead.

The police said the success of the operation was the strongest blow yet against the organized crime group that operates mainly in the Coffee Triangle region.

"This criminal group is responsible for drug trafficking activities, blackmailing and assassinations in the departments (states) of Risaralda, Caldas, Quindio ... and of using international routes to ship drugs to Panama, Honduras and the Dominican Republic," the police said.

"Alex," who started out as the right-hand man of the group's former leaders who are currently in US jails, is accused of trafficking between two and three tons of cocaine a month to Central America and the Caribbean.

He is also accused of taking part in several massacres, including one in 1997 in Mapiripan where 27 people were killed, another in 2010 in San Francisco del Rayo, where six people were murdered, and a third in Caucacia in 2011 when 12 people died.