{"id":477219,"date":"2026-09-27T07:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T07:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477219\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T07:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T07:22:13","slug":"accused-colombian-drug-kingpin-extradited-to-california-to-face-drug-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477219\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused Colombian drug kingpin extradited to California to face drug charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Colombian <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/01\/us-news\/socal-residents-alarmed-over-cartel-leader-owning-nearby-ranch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">narco-terror boss<\/a> accused of leading a 1,000-member army has been hauled to California to face federal charges that could put him behind bars for life.<\/p>\n<p>Geovany Andres Rojas, 45, known as \u201cSpider,\u201d was extradited from Colombia Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdca\/pr\/alleged-narco-terrorist-leader-arana-extradited-colombia-part-homeland-security-task\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">and placed in US custody<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas arrived at an undisclosed location in San Diego around 4:30 p.m., <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/10\/us-news\/orange-county-football-mom-who-stole-411000-from-high-school-team-busted-in-fbi-raid\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surrounded by DEA and FBI agents<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Rojas faces charges of international conspiracy to distribute cocaine and narco terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Colombia extradited alleged drug-trafficking leader Geovany Andres Rojas, known as \u201cSpider,\u201d to the U.S., as announced by President Abelardo De La Espriella on Friday. Instagram\/oann<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, he was handed over to US officials during a heavily guarded transfer at a Colombian National Police air base in Bogota. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella attended the handoff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColombia and the Department of Justice are making a clean sweep of narcoterrorists, starting with Rojas,\u201d US Attorney Adam Gordon said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Rojas allegedly flaunted his power on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Federal authorities accuse Rojas of leading Comandos de la Frontera, a heavily armed paramilitary organization with an estimated 1,000 members operating in southwestern Colombia.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas allegedly flaunted his power on social media and in interviews, posing with weapons and heavily armed fighters.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say the group made money from cocaine cultivation and production while using guns and violence to control territory in one of Colombia\u2019s major cocaine producing regions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir cocaine fueled the Mexican cartels pumping poison into our communities,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n<p>Federal authorities accuse Rojas of leading Comandos de la Frontera. Instagram\/oann<\/p>\n<p>Rojas was once a FARC fighter who signed Colombia\u2019s 2016 peace deal before returning to the armed struggle.<\/p>\n<p>He was arrested in Colombia in February 2025 on an Interpol warrant tied to narcotics offenses. His extradition was later approved, but delayed while he took part in peace talks.<\/p>\n<p>President Abelardo de la Espriella ordered him extradited to the US on Aug. 26.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas faces charges of international conspiracy to distribute cocaine and narcoterrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas faces charges of international conspiracy to distribute cocaine and narcoterrorism. DEA<\/p>\n<p>The cocaine conspiracy charge carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison. The narco terrorism charge carries at least 20 years and up to life.<\/p>\n<p>Rojas is expected to appear at 2 p.m. Sept. 28 before US Magistrate Judge Steve B. Chu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Colombian narco-terror boss accused of leading a 1,000-member army has been hauled to California to face federal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,723,2871,6168,4182,3586],"class_list":["post-477219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-crime","tag-ice","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-metro","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}