Colombia Nabs Top Drug Lord

Colombian police nabbed their nation's top drug lord today, and the country's president "is breathing easy," a rep told AFP. Daniel Rendon, 43, alias Don Mario, had a $2 million price on his head after allegedly swapping drugs for weapons from leftist FARC rebels. Now that he's in custody, the US will seek his extradition on drug-trafficking charges, the AP reports.

The underworld linchpin—"one of the most feared drug traffickers in the world," president Alvaro Uribe said—was captured in a raid involving 300 officers. Rendon controls 1,500 assassins and had offered his associates $1,000 for each cop they killed. He's also accused of heading right-wing paramilitary groups that have killed more than 10,000 people and stolen millions of acres of land since the 1980s. (More drug cartel stories.)