Colombia nabs fugitive priest linked to criminal gangs

Colombian authorities have arrested a fugitive priest convicted of links to criminal gangs, an official said Saturday.Oscar Ortiz was sentenced in absentia to 19 years in prison for ties to right-wing militias and drug traffickers in Medellin.A police source, who asked not to be named, told AFP that Ortiz was tracked down to a house in the town of La Virginia.Ortiz's lawyer Jose de Jesus Diaz Moncada told local newspaper El Colombiano his client was innocent and was appealing his conviction at the Latin American country's Supreme Court.Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, is a former drug lord fiefdom.Long considered one of the most dangerous places on the planet, it has seen crime rates fall and neighborhood life return thanks to new public services in some of its poorest areas.