Miguel Angel Mejia was captured as he moved around the country in a specially-designed articulated lorry

Miguel Angel Mejia to give up all he learned in more than two decades in the bowels of the Colombian underworld, the implications could be dramatic for cocaine smuggling. Miguel and his twin brother, Victor, whose organisation became known as the "Twins Cartel", worked their way up the criminal ladder, starting as assassins, then specialising in moving large cocaine shipments by sea, into the US and into Europe via Albania."He has told me that he wants to fully cooperate with the justice system," said Angélica Mari­a Marti­nez, a lawyer for Miguel Angel Mejia, who is now on US soil awaiting trail on drugs trafficking charges.The Twins were largely unknown until 2001, when $35 million (£24 million) in cash was found in two of their flats in Bogota. The Twins then bought their way into the illegal Right-wing paramilitary United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (known as the AUC), setting up a private army and a fiefdom in the eastern province of Arauca, astride the strategic smuggling route into Venezuela. Victor was killed in a gunfight with police in April last year. In a scene reminiscent of the film Scarface, he held off attacking police with a machine gun as his bodyguards were cut down, until he, too, received several bullets that killed him before he hit the ground. Just three days later, Miguel was captured as he moved around the country in a specially-designed articulated lorry, which had a secret compartment. Police stopped the vehicle at a checkpoint and even thought they knew the Twin was hiding somewhere inside they could not find him. It was only when a tube, which let air into the secret compartment, was sealed up, that Miguel was forced to reveal himself or suffocate.

You Might Also Like :