Today the Medellin cocaine cartel freed one of nine journalists it has kidnapped.

They describe him as the liaison between the Medellin cocaine cartel, based in Colombia, and drug dealers in Mexico.

The drugs policy is widely credited with breaking the once-powerful Medellin cocaine cartel.

But Colombia's two-year war on its Medellin cocaine cartel has transformed the drug business in Peru, shifting the emphasis away from simple agriculture.

Colombian Army troops today seized a suspected drug smuggler described as the fifth most important man in the Medellin cocaine cartel, the police said.

He said the policy extended to the leader of the Medellin cocaine cartel, Pablo Escobar, and other top drug traffickers.

Without their efforts, the current U.S.-assisted drive to put the Medellin cocaine cartel out of business could have no real hope of success.

The Colombian security police said today that they had arrested the chief of assassins for the Medellin cocaine cartel.

A court magistrate who ruled against two leaders of the Medellin cocaine cartel was shot dead as he left work, the police said today.

In Colombia, the police have killed or jailed most of the top leaders of the Medellin cocaine cartel.