According to a 2010 grand jury indictment in U.S. District Court in New York, Barrera was both manufacturing and trafficking drugs on a large scale, buying raw cocaine paste from FARC rebels and converting it into cocaine at his labs in eastern Colombia. The indictment said that amounted to as much as 400 tons per year, and that Barrera then arranged shipment of the drugs through Colombia and Venezuela to the United States, Europe and Africa.
The other two drug trafficking suspects handed over to Colombian authorities on Wednesday included Jorge Cifuentes Villa and Eduardo Acosta Mejia.
Reverol said the 30-year-old Acosta is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic, and is wanted by Colombian authorities on drug trafficking charges.
Acosta, who was arrested in western Tachira state in August, formerly was a member of the U.S. military and served in special forces for the Navy, Reverol said. He said that Acosta has worked as a "bodyguard for criminal organizations" in Colombia, and that Venezuelan authorities determined he had the "profile of a mercenary."
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