WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Colombian rebel leader wanted by U.S. law
                 enforcement authorities on murder and drug trafficking charges has been
                 arrested in Suriname and flown to the United States, the Drug Enforcement
                 Administration said Wednesday.

                 Carlos Bolas, a leader of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as
                 FARC, will be arraigned in U.S. District Court, the DEA said.

                 "For the first time we have not only indicted a member of a terrorist organization
                 involved in drug trafficking, but we have also arrested him," said DEA Director Asa
                 Hutchinson.

                 Colombia's army chief, Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora, said other rebels and traffickers
                 should take heed of the arrest.

                 "This sends notice to all the bandits that sooner or later they will all fall," Mora told
                 reporters in Bogota.

                 He congratulated U.S. law enforcement for bringing Bolas to justice, and said the
                 rebel had been in charge of sales of cocaine produced under FARC control in the
                 vast plains of eastern Colombia.

                 "He had contacts on a global scale and had traveled to various countries in Latin
                 America," Mora said.

                 The agency obtained custody of Bolas on Tuesday. Surinamese authorities arrested
                 him for immigration violations after determining he was using a false Peruvian
                 passport.

                 Surinamese officials, aware that Bolas was wanted in the United States, ordered
                 him expelled and turned him over to the DEA.

                 In Suriname, officials said Bolas was arrested in a house north of the capital of
                 Paramaribo, along with five Surinamese and one Brazilian.

                 Carlos Bolas is a nickname. His real name is said to be Rojas.

                 Besides the drug charges, Bolas was wanted for the February 1999 murders of
                 three Americans who were working with an Indian community in northeastern
                 Colombia.

                 Last March, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Bolas and other FARC
                 members on charges of conspiring to manufacture and import cocaine into the
                 United States, the DEA said.

                 The indictment alleges that, starting in 1994, Bolas and his associates were leaders
                 of a cocaine trafficking ring centered in Barranco Minas, Colombia, that
                 manufactured and sold cocaine to international drug traffickers in exchange for
                 money, weapons, and equipment for the FARC.

                 Surinamese police spokesman Ronald Gajadhar said local authorities had observed
                 the suspect for months before making the arrest.

                 Police found two handguns, a satellite telephone and a Global Positioning System
                 device, all allegedly belonging to Bolas.

                 The FARC is the larger of two leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia.

                  Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.