Bogota: Colombian police have arrested the boss of a group of gunmen formerly employed by slain drug lord Wilber "Jabon" Varela, EFE news agency reported on Tuesday.

Jorge Enrique Geles Franco, 34, was detained "in an operation by land, air and sea" in the jungles of southwest Colombia.

Geles was captured near the Pacific port town of Tumaco in the province of Nariño, which borders Ecuador.

Police helicopters travelled to the jungle site where the police had been told they could find Geles, "who, according to information from a member of the network of collaborators (informants), was in the area carrying out the sale of illicit substances", the police said.

Geles "controlled the production of cocaine in the laboratories of this criminal organization" in part of Nariño.

Two cocaine labs were also destroyed in the operation, the police said.

Source : IANS