By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – Former drug lord, Daniel Rendon Herrera, or “Don Mario,” was convicted Monday and sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of an attorney. Don Mario was convicted for aggravated homicide, kidnapping and conspiracy.

According to a judge in the central Colombian city of Villavicencio, “Don Mario” ordered the kidnapping and murder of attorney Jose Absalom Achury Florez. This occurred while Mario was the paramilitary leader of the drug gang “Los Urabeños.”

The attorney was kidnapped by paramilitary officers from the town of Granada, Meta, in May of 2003. He was found dead 11 days later in his car 10 miles from where he was kidnapped.

Late last month, Colombian officers dismantled Mario’s drug operation, capturing seven of its members in two northwestern provinces. Alleged gang leader Luis Eduardo Vargas, alias “Pipon,” who is accused of committing hundreds of crimes in the region and of smuggling drugs to the United States via Central America is one of the members said to be detained.

Mario has been in custody since April, 2009 and the Colombian Supreme Court in March denied a request for his extradition from the United States, which accused him of providing material support to a terrorist organization and of conspiring to import, manufacture, possess and distribute cocaine in the United States. More than 3,000 homicides and other crimes, including forced displacement and disappearance, have been attributed to the Mario’s gang.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports – “Don Mario” Sentenced to 17 Years in Jail – 18 January 2011

Colombia Reports- Authorities Dismantle “Don Mario’s” Gang – 31 December 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Colombia Busts Gang Linked to Notorious Drug Lord – 31 December 2010