Venezuela captures top drug lord

Venezuela has captured a major Colombian drug lord known as "El Valenciano," Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said here Monday during a visit with President Hugo Chavez. Santos thanked Chavez for the arrest in Venezuela Sunday of Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco, who has a five million dollar US reward on his head, saying it showed the benefits of security cooperation between the two countries. Venezuela and Colombia had tense relations under Santos's predecessor, but the Colombian president and Chavez have moved to improve ties between the South American neighbors despite their ideological differences. Santos said the 39-year-old Bonilla Orozco controlled "a series of structures dedicated to crime and drug trafficking and so for us he had become an extremely high value target." The US State Department alleges that Bonilla Orozco had been linked to the transport over $25 million from the United States to Mexico, and had extensive dealings with Mexico's Zetas drug cartel. It said his organization used a network of warehouses and front companies to buy legitimate goods that were stored and shipped with drugs.