By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Colombia has extradited an alleged drug-trafficking leader from a dissident faction of the former FARC rebel group to the US, President Abelardo De La Espriella said on Friday.
It will be the first extradition of a senior commander from an illegal armed group under De La Espriella, who took office in August.
Geovany Andres Rojas, better known as "Spider," is accused of leading the Border Commands faction of the National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army
(CNEB), one of several groups formed by ex-FARC fighters who rejected or abandoned a 2016 peace deal with the government.
The president said in a post on social media platform X that his administration has carried out 94 extraditions to date.
"Colombia will not be a refuge for drug traffickers wanted by international justice," De La Espriella said, pledging to pursue entire trafficking chains from cultivation to leadership.
Under heavy security at a Colombian National Police air base in Bogota, Rojas was handed over to US officials, three national police sources told Reuters.
US prosecutors accuse Rojas of drug trafficking and criminal conspiracy tied to alleged operations in Colombia and Ecuador dating back to 2017.
Rojas was arrested in February 2025 at a hotel in Colombia's capital while participating in activities linked to peace talks that the government of then-President Gustavo Petro was holding with illegal armed groups, aimed at ending a conflict spanning more than six decades that has left around 500,000 people dead.
The Border Commands are among several FARC dissident groups that rejected or later abandoned the 2016 peace deal. Former President Gustavo Petro sought to negotiate with those factions as well as prominent armed group the ELN under his Total Peace policy, but the effort was plagued by setbacks and violence.
De La Espriella, a 49-year-old right-wing lawyer, reversed the negotiation strategy of his predecessor. Since taking office he scrapped peace talks with illegal armed groups, including some FARC dissident factions, and launched a military offensive to retake remote mountain and jungle territory.
Authorities say those armed groups finance themselves through cocaine trafficking, illegal mining and extortion.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Iñigo Alexander, Kylie Madry and David Gregorio)
