Mozambique expels drug lord

MAPUTO: Mozambique on Sunday expelled one of Brazil's most wanted criminals, an alleged drug lord who has been on the run for two decades.

Gilberto "Fuminho" Aparecido dos Santos was sent home on a Brazilian air force plane which left Maputo in the dead of night at 1:30 am with dozens of police officers on board, the authorities said.

Dos Santos was arrested on Monday in an international sting operation that included agents from Brazil, Mozambique and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. The Mozambican authorities decided on Friday to expel him for allegedly entering the country illegally, but kept the decision secret until he had left.

He is an alleged leader of the First Capital Command (PCC), considered to be Brazil´s top criminal gang wielding control over cocaine supply routes from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Its leader, Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, is serving a sentence of more than 200 years in a maximum-security prison in the capital Brasilia.