Colombian warlord Geovany Andres Rojas has been extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking and terrorism charges, after months in which his transfer was delayed while he took part in government-backed peace talks.
Rojas, also known as “Araña” — Spanish for “The Spider” — was flown to California and placed in the custody of federal agents. He is alleged to have been a leader and spokesman for Comandos de la Frontera, a rebel organisation linked to cocaine trafficking in Putumayo, near Colombia’s borders with Ecuador and Peru.
He was arrested in Bogotá in February 2025, and Colombia’s Supreme Court approved his extradition in October. Former president Gustavo Petro then suspended the order, saying Rojas was needed for negotiations between the government and rebel groups including Comandos de la Frontera.
The suspension was lifted by conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was elected in June and has ended talks with rebel organisations as part of a tougher approach to crime.
De la Espriella personally supervised Rojas’s transfer to the United States. “You don’t build peace by protecting narco-terrorists like this bandit,” he said on Friday. “I ask U.S. authorities … that he cannot negotiate deals that will leave his crimes unpunished.”
US Attorney Adam Gordon said: “Colombia and the Department of Justice are making a clean sweep of narcoterrorists, starting with Araña.”
Violence and rebel groups in Colombia
De la Espriella has pledged to work closely with the United States to combat drug trafficking. His government recently deployed the military in a city in northern Colombia after a drug gang attempted to enforce a three-day curfew.
Colombia has struggled to contain violence in rural areas since the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which ended five decades of guerrilla warfare and saw more than 14,000 fighters surrender their weapons.
The deal left a power vacuum in areas where the state has limited presence. Breakaway groups have since fought over cocaine routes, illegal mines and extortion operations.
Comandos de la Frontera emerged in 2017 and is partly made up of former FARC fighters who rejected the peace agreement. It later allied with the Segunda Marquetalia organisation, founded by former FARC commander Luciano Marin, but that alliance collapsed two years ago.
Rojas is expected to make his first court appearance in the United States on Monday.
