America’s Drug Enforcement Administration have been chasing Monzer al-Kassar for 30 years. Yesterday the Syrian arms dealer, suspected of arming militants from Iraq to Somalia, was arrested by Spanish Police.
He was arrested on U.S. suspicion he supplied weapons to Colombian leftist rebels, Spanish and U.S. officials said. Two other men were arrested in Romania.
al-Kassar is a longtime resident of Spain whose past also includes allegations of drug trafficking, was arrested Thursday evening at Madrid airport after he arrived on a flight from the southern city of Malaga, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.
A U.S. official in Madrid said al-Kassar is accused of supplying weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a rebel army classified in the United States as a terrorist group. Two other men, Tareq Mousa al Ghazi and Luis Filipe Moreno Godoy, were arrested in a simultaneous operation in Romania, according to the official. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
