Colombia has extradited a former commander of the leftist FARC paramilitary group to the United States to face drug trafficking charges, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said on Friday.
Martin Perez led a FARC unit known as the 30th Front from 2011 to 2014, when the group shipped thousands of kilograms of cocaine to the United States and elsewhere, earning millions of dollars for the FARC's efforts to overthrow Colombia's government, prosecutors said.
Perez, also known as "Richard," was arrested in Colombia in 2014, before the FARC demobilized under a historic peace deal in 2016. He is expected to be arraigned on Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon on six criminal counts including international cocaine distribution.
