DEFENDANT EXTRADITED FROM COLOMBIA IN WEAPONS DEAL

(HOUSTON, Texas) - Diego Alberto Ruiz-Arroyave, aka "El Primo," age 46, was extradited from Colombia on May 12, 2008, to face charges of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a foreign terrorist organization, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today. Ruiz-Arroyave is one of 14 persons extradited by the Colombian government to face a variety of charges in a number of districts that arrived aboard a flight originating from Colombia and arriving in Miami, Fla., in the early morning hours of May 13, 2008. Ruiz-Arroyave is expected to be transferred to the Southern District of Texas to face the charges pending against him in Houston.

The charges against Ruiz-Arroyave are the result of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Operation White Terror focused on a $25 million arms-for-cocaine deal which lead to the indictment of four persons in December 2002. Two of the four defendants originally charged - Elkin Alberto Arroyave-Ruiz and Edgar Fernando Blanco Puerta - were high ranking "Commandantes" of the AUC, a paramilitary organization originally designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Secretary of State on Sept. 10, 2001. The four original defendants and three others subsequently indicted were convicted for their part in a 2001 arms-for-cocaine deal. A total of 11 persons have been indicted and convicted in this district as a result of Operation White Terror.

According to pleadings filed in this case on Oct. 14, 2004, a grand jury in the Southern District of Texas returned a superceding indictment charging Javier Conrado Alvarez-Correa and Ruiz-Arroyave with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B. Alvarez-Correa and Ruiz-Arroyave were allegedly the key intermediaries between another now convicted co-conspirator and Jose Miguel Arroyave-Ruiz, the leader of the AUC's Centaurus Block and cousin of Diego Alberto Ruiz-Arroyave, in the $25 million arms-for-cocaine deal. The co-conspirator allegedly worked with Ruiz-Arroyave to coordinate the exchange of weapons and through Alvarez-Correa to communicate with the AUC's Centarus Block leader. According to press reports, Miguel Arroyave-Ruiz was killed by his own troops on Sept. 19, 2004, for participating in talks to demobilize the AUC.

This case is the result of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation conducted by the Houston offices of the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeff Vaden and Stuart A. Burns.

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