By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com
The DEA and Guatemala authorities on Wednesday nabbed Guatemala’s reputed top drug trafficker who was wanted on cocaine charges in Florida, the Associated Press reported.
AP reported that Juan Ortiz Lopez and two other suspects were arrested at a house in the western city of Quetzaltenango.
Guatemala’s Minister Carlos Menocal said Lopez had been under surveillance by the DEA and his nation’s intelligence agents for seven days, AP reported.
“This is a big fish and we are satisfied with his capture. It’s a great achievement by this government,” Menocal said, according to AP.
Tampa’s U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill added, according to AP: “For over a decade, Ortiz-Lopez’s drug organization received multi-ton cocaine shipments in Guatemala, which would then be transported through Mexico to the United States, where the cocaine would be further distributed.”
