Colombia captures top drug lord "Don Mario"

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Police on Wednesday captured Colombia's most wanted drug lord, a former paramilitary fighter accused of thousands of murders who once offered his gunmen a $1,000 (667 pound) reward for each policeman they killed.

Daniel Rendon Herrera, 43, alias "Don Mario," was found alone, eating rice out his hands, hiding under a palm tree in the jungles of northern Antioquia province, Defence Minster Juan Manuel Santos told reporters.

When he was surrounded, the once-feared cocaine baron was living "virtually like a dog, curled up and clinging to that palm tree, where he had been for two days," Santos said.

He is accused of shipping about 100 tonnes of the drug from Colombia's Caribbean coast towards the United States.

Santos said he is responsible for at least 3,000 murders.

The portly and bearded captive had his hands bound in front of him as he got off a plane in Bogota. In a blue and brown T-shirt and loose fitting gray pants, he looked sombre and dishevelled as he was driven off to jail in an armoured car.

Colombia had offered a $2 million reward for information leading to the capture of Rendon Herrera, who is wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges.

Santos said informants were a key part of the nine-month operation in which police patiently penetrated the rings of security, consisting of scores of armed thugs, that once protected the fugitive.