EXCLUSIVE-Ex-Venezuelan general charged with drug trafficking surrenders to DEA -sources

By Angus Berwick and Luis Jaime Acosta and Sarah Kinosian
·2 min read

(Updates with details, background)

By Angus Berwick, Luis Jaime Acosta and Sarah Kinosian

CARACAS/BOGOTA, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents flew to Colombia on Friday to take into custody Cliver Alcala, a retired Venezuelan general indicted for drug trafficking along with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, two DEA source familiar with the operation told Reuters.

Alcala surrendered to the DEA and waived his extradition, after agreeing to collaborate with prosecutors, the DEA sources said. The DEA agents are flying back to the United States with Alcala this evening from the Colombian port city of Barranquilla, where Alcala now lives, the sources said.

Two Colombian law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed there was a DEA flight scheduled to leave Colombia tonight, though they declined to give more details.

Spokespeople for the DEA, U.S. State and Justice Departments, and Colombia's National Police did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The U.S. government on Thursday indicted Maduro, Alcala and more than a dozen other top Venezuelan officials on charges of "narco-terrorism", the latest escalation of the Trump administration's pressure campaign aimed at ousting the socialist leader.

Attorney General William Barr accused Maduro and his associates of colluding with a dissident faction of the demobilized Colombian guerrilla group, the FARC, "to flood the United States with cocaine."

The U.S. State Department had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to Alcala's arrest. There is a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Maduro's detention.

Alcala told the DEA on Thursday evening that he would give himself up, one DEA source said.

Alcala retired from the armed forces as Maduro took over the presidency in 2013, after Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez died of cancer. (Reporting by Angus Berwick, Luis Jaime Acosta, and Sarah Kinosian; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Vivian Sequera and Daniel Wallis)