Colombia has extradited an alleged drug-trafficking leader from a dissident faction of the former FARC rebel group to the US, President Abelardo De La Espriella said on Friday (September 25).

It will be the first extradition of a senior commander from an illegal armed group under De La Espriella, who took office in August.

Geovany Andres Rojas, better known as "Spider," is accused of leading the Border Commands faction of the National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army (CNEB), one of several groups formed by ex-FARC fighters who rejected or abandoned a 2016 peace deal with the government.

The president said in a post on social media platform X that his administration has carried out 94 extraditions to date.

Under heavy security at a Colombian National Police air base in Bogota, Rojas was handed over to US officials, three national police sources told Reuters.

US prosecutors accuse Rojas of drug trafficking and criminal conspiracy tied to alleged operations in Colombia and Ecuador dating back to 2017.

Rojas was arrested in February 2025 at a hotel in Colombia's capital while participating in activities linked to peace talks that the government of then-President Gustavo Petro was holding with illegal armed groups, aimed at ending a conflict spanning more than six decades that has left around 500,000 people dead.

The Border Commands are among several FARC dissident groups that rejected or later abandoned the 2016 peace deal. Former President Gustavo Petro sought to negotiate with those factions as well as prominent armed group the ELN under his Total Peace policy, but the effort was plagued by setbacks and violence.

De La Espriella, a 49-year-old right-wing lawyer, reversed the negotiation strategy of his predecessor. Since taking office he scrapped peace talks with illegal armed groups, including some FARC dissident factions, and launched a military offensive to retake remote mountain and jungle territory.

Authorities say those armed groups finance themselves through cocaine trafficking, illegal mining and extortion.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA (SEPTEMBER 25, 2026) (COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT HANDOUT - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF COLOMBIAN POLICE AND INTERPOL OFFICERS GUARDING AND ESCORTING TOP REBEL COMMANDER , GEOVANY ANDRES ROJAS, BETTER KNOWN AS 'SPIDER,' TO HANGAR WHERE PLANE THAT WILL TAKE HIM TO UNITED STATES IS LOCATED

2. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA, SAYING:

"I hand over alias 'Spider' to the authorities of the United States in compliance with the law and within the framework of a historic alliance that once again has a clear purpose: to close the cocaine routes, dismantle the laboratories, break up the networks that leave our border towards Central America, Mexico, Europe and North America, and give the territory back to the citizen."

3. VARIOUS OF COLOMBIAN POLICE AND INTERPOL OFFICERS GUARDING ALIAS 'SPIDER' IN HANGAR WHERE PLANE THAT WILL TAKE HIM TO UNITED STATES IS LOCATED

4. DE LA ESPRIELLA GREETING DEA OFFICIALS TO WHOM ALIAS 'SPIDER' IS BEING HANDED OVER FOR EXTRADITION

5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA, SAYING:

"I have signed 94 extraditions so far in my government and I assure you, compatriots, that many more will come. In the previous government, the extradition of this wretch was suspended because that regime that preceded me was complicit with these criminals."

6. VARIOUS OF COLOMBIAN POLICE OFFICERS HANDING OVER ALIAS 'SPIDER' TO DEA OFFICIALS WHO PUT HIM ON PLANE TO BE EXTRADITED TO UNITED STATES

7. VARIOUS OF ALIAS 'SPIDER' BOARDING PLANE IN HANDCUFFS

8. DE LA ESPRIELLA GREETING DEA OFFICIALS