<div><p>CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan soldiers this week captured alleged Colombian drug lord Salomon Camacho, known as "Big Papa," who has a $5 million price on his head in the United States for smuggling cocaine.</p><p>Rewards of $5 million are usually only offered for senior drug traffickers and cartel leaders.</p><p>"We got him this week and we will deport him," a source at the anti-drug agency said on Sunday. Anti-narcotics soldiers and secret police made the arrest in Valencia, the government said in a brief statement. Valencia is an industrial city in the west of the South American country.</p><p>Formerly a partner of the deceased leader of the Medellin cartel Pablo Escobar, 65-year-old Camacho brought 9 tons of cocaine into the United States between 1999 and 2000, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.</p><p>The DEA says Camacho now works for Colombia's Guajira Cartel and has strong ties to Dominican trafficking organizations, which helped him launder money.</p><p>Venezuela did not say where Camacho will be deported to, but last year it sent several alleged drug bosses to Colombia and the United States.</p><p>Washington accuses Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government, which does not allow DEA agents to operate in the country, of not cooperating in the drug war.</p><p>It says he has presided over a huge increase in drug shipments, including large cargoes of Colombian cocaine on jets headed to Europe and the United States via Central America and Africa.</p><p>The Chavez government says the United States, which blocks sales of military equipment to Venezuela, is itself an obstacle to anti-narcotics work. Venezuela says it now has the capacity to fight traffickers without U.S. help.</p><p>(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Eric Beech)</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67099884&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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