Colombia captures top drug lord "Don Mario"

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian police captured the country's most wanted drug lord on Wednesday, a former right-wing paramilitary who once offered his gunmen a $1,000 (667 pounds) reward for each policeman they killed.

Daniel Rendon Herrera, 43, alias "Don Mario," was found alone, eating rice out his hands, hiding under a palm tree in the jungles of northern Antioquia province, Defence Minster Juan Manuel Santos said.

When he was surrounded, the once-feared cocaine baron was living "virtually like a dog, curled up and clinging to that palm tree, where he had been for two days," Santos told reporters.

Rendon Herrera is accused of shipping about 100 tonnes of the drug from Colombia's Caribbean coast to the United States. Santos said he is also responsible for at least 3,000 murders.

The portly and bearded captive had his hands bound in front of him as he got off a plane in Bogota. In a blue and brown T-shirt and loose fitting gray pants, he looked sombre and dishevelled as he was driven off to jail in an armoured car.

Colombia had offered a $2 million reward for information leading to the capture of Rendon Herrera, who is also wanted in the United States on drug trafficking charges.

Santos said informants were a key part of the nine-month operation in which police patiently penetrated the rings of security, consisting of scores of armed thugs, that once protected the fugitive.

As Rendon Herrera started to feel the pressure earlier this year, he offered his gunmen $1,000 for every officer they killed.