‘Cocaine Minister’ for trial
NZPA-Reuter Miami A former Bolivian Interior Minister, dubbed by United States authorities as the “Minister of Cocaine,” was handed over to United States drug agents in La Paz and flown to Miami on Monday to face trial on drugtrafficking charges. Officials said Luis Arce Gomez, a former Army colonel who had been on the run since the early 1980 s, arrived at Miami International Airport late on Monday night and was taken under heavy guard to a nearby prison, a law enforcement source said. Arce Gomez, Interior Minister in the military Government of
General Luis Garcia Meza between 1980 and 1981, was indicted by a Miami federal grand jury in 1983 along with 17 others. He was charged with masterminding an operation that smuggled large loads of cocaine to the United States.
The indictment alleged that while he was a Government Minister, Arce Gomez created paramilitary groups that seized cocaine from traffickers who failed to pay for protection and then handed the drugs over to smugglers who did pay.
The “Miami Herald” newspaper said Arce Gomez once hired the Nazi war criminal
Klaus Barbie, now serving a life sentence in France, The White House hailed Arce Gomez’s arrest, which took place on Sunday at a farm in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
“The arrest of Arce Gomez sends a message that the President will work with other governments to pursue vigorously individuals who traffic in drugs,” it said in a statement.
Arce Gomez and Garcia Meza, whose Government is accused by Washington of having been in league with Bolivia’s cocaine traffickers, also face charges of murder and military rebellion in Bolivia.
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Press, 13 December 1989, Page 10
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273‘Cocaine Minister’ for trial Press, 13 December 1989, Page 10
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