Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella speaks during an event to present new homes to victims of an earthquake in Buenaventura, Colombia, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian warlord, whose extradition to the United States had been delayed for several months while he was designated a peace negotiator by the country's previous government, was flown to California and placed in custody of federal agents.

Geovany Andres Rojas faces drug trafficking and terrorism charges in the United States. For years, he acted as a spokesman and leader of Comandos de la Frontera, a rebel group known for trafficking cocaine in Putumayo, a Colombian province that borders Ecuador and Peru.

Rojas, who is also known as “the spider,” had been protected from extradition by former Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who had asked him to participate in peace talks with the Colombian government.

But a new government, led by conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, lifted the ban on Rojas’s extradition, signaling a shift in the nation’s security strategy.

“You don’t build peace by protecting narco-terrorists like this bandit,” De la Espriella said on Friday, after he personally supervised Rojas’ transfer to the U.S. “I ask U.S. authorities … that he cannot negotiate deals that will leave his crimes unpunished.”

Rojas was arrested in Bogota in February 2025, and Colombia’s Supreme Court approved his extradition to the U.S. in October. But Petro suspended it, arguing he needed Rojas to participate in peace talks between the Colombian government and several rebel groups, including Comandos de la Frontera.

De la Espriella, who was elected in June, has suspended talks with rebel groups and has taken an iron-fist approach to crime. It recently included militarizing a city in the north of Colombia, where a drug gang attempted to impose a three-day curfew. The conservative leader was endorsed by President Donald Trump while campaigning and has said he will work closely with the United States to fight drug trafficking.

Colombia’s government has struggled to contain violence in rural areas in recent years, as drug gangs and rebel groups fight over territory abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, following their 2016 peace deal with the government.

More than 14,000 fighters laid down their weapons as a result of the agreement that ended five decades of guerrilla warfare. But the peace deal also left a power vacuum in regions with little state presence, where illegal activities like the cocaine trade are common. Several breakaway groups are now fighting over drug trafficking routes, illegal mines and extortion rackets in these areas.

Comandos de la Frontera emerged in 2017 and is partly led by former FARC fighters who did not join the 2016 peace deal. The group formed an alliance with the Segunda Marquetalia organization, a group founded in 2019 by former FARC commander Luciano Marin. But the alliance fell apart two years ago, leaving Comandos de la Frontera to conduct separate negotiations with Colombia’s government.

News from © The Associated Press, 2026