Manhunt: Drug lord 'Fernandinho' is captured after a brief standoff with troops. His plane was forced down 2 days earlier.

              By T. CHRISTIAN MILLER, Times Staff Writer

                  BOGOTA, Colombia--Brazil's biggest drug trafficker was captured deep in the Amazon jungle Saturday
              after a two-month manhunt, a Colombian military spokesman said.
                   Luiz Fernando da Costa was caught following a brief standoff two days after he attempted to flee the
              region in a private Cessna 206 that was forced down in the middle of the jungle by the Colombian air force.
                   Da Costa is important not only as a drug dealer but also as one of the largest suppliers of weapons to the FARC, Colombia's
              leftists guerrillas, authorities said. Da Costa is believed to have smuggled guns for the guerrillas, who in turn supplied him cocaine for
              sale in the U.S. and Europe.
                   His operations were an indication of how intertwined Colombia's leftist insurgency and its drug trade have become, military
              officials said.
                   "It's a tremendous blow, both to narcotics trafficking and to the FARC," an army spokesman said of the arrest.
                   A vicious and canny entrepreneur, Da Costa rose to power in the coastal slums surrounding Rio de Janeiro, resulting in his
              nickname, Fernandinho Beira Mar, or Freddy Seashore.
                   Legendary for his brutality, Da Costa reportedly once supervised by telephone the torture-slaying of a man he suspected of
              having an affair with his girlfriend.
                   He was arrested in 1996 in Brazil but bribed his way out of prison and fled to Paraguay, where he allegedly began to make
              contacts with arms dealers seeking to sell weapons to the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
                   He spent at least the past year in the jungles of southeastern Colombia, allegedly swapping one rifle for 4.4 pounds of cocaine,
              then smuggling the drugs out through Brazil, Suriname and Paraguay.
                   He is also alleged to have been involved in a case in which about 10,000 rifles were airdropped into the jungle, a deal brokered
              by Vladimiro Montesinos, a former Peruvian spymaster turned international fugitive.
                   Da Costa's downfall began in February, when the Colombian army deployed 3,500 troops to the remote provinces of Vichada
              and Guainia to strike at FARC bases and cocaine facilities.
                   During that operation, the army stumbled across Da Costa at a country home in the company of the local FARC commander,
              Tomas Medina, alias Negro Acacio.
                   A firefight ensued that left Da Costa wounded in the chest and right arm. Nevertheless, he and Medina fled into the jungle and
              escaped. Medina remains at large.
                   For the next two months, Colombian officials pursued Da Costa relentlessly through the remote and inaccessible region.
                   It proved a difficult task because many local people protected Da Costa, who was seen as an economic savior.
                   Da Costa and Medina allegedly set up a system in which workers at cocaine plantations received long holidays. They also built
              soccer fields and flew in luxury goods and supplies for the populace, according to military officials.
                   "The population protected them totally," Brig. Gen. Arcesio Barrero said in an interview earlier this month.
                   Soon after the shootout, Colombian military officials arrested a doctor flying from Brazil to Colombia apparently to treat Da
              Costa.
                   They also arrested at least two of Da Costa's wives (he is suspected of having at least five), one in Bogota and another in
              Barrancominas, a tiny town in southeastern Colombia.
                   Still, Da Costa's whereabouts remained unknown until Thursday, when the Colombian air force detected two small airplanes
              flying out of Colombia. One plane was shot down. The second was forced to land next to a small stream in the middle of the jungle.
                   At least four men were seen fleeing from the plane, which was reached by about 300 ground troops an hour later, a military
              source said.
                   The pilot told military officials he was transporting Da Costa, who had one arm in a cast and was missing two fingers. Authorities
              also discovered Da Costa's identity documents in the plane, according to military sources.
                   Da Costa's injuries and the quick arrival of troops led top military officers to predict his quick capture.
                   "He is in the middle of the jungle without food and without weapons," said Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora, head of the army. "Within
              72 hours, he will be captured dead or alive."
                   It took less than 48.

              Copyright 2001