John Fredy Mendieta Ortiz, alias Fruta or Mango, was captured by the Colombian Technical Investigation Team (CTI) with a view to extradition to United States, at the request of the U.S. Court of the Southern District of Florida for conspiracy to distribute cocaine offense in that country.
Mendieta would be part of an organization that operated from Bogota, but he was in charge of distributing cocaine using small aircrafts from the Estado de Apure (Venezuela) arriving at clandestine airstrips in Honduras, Guatemala and Haiti.
The work system of this group was based on the location of an airstrip where the airplane was prepared for the trip in a period of two to five days. From there, the aircraft would depart to another nearby airstrip to load narcotics and dispatch them to Central America.
Alias Mango is part of the same group that, last January 15, was neutralized by “CTI” in a double operation carried out in Bogotá and Villavicencio. On that occasion Ferdinando Díaz Torres, alias Fercho, Julian, René Rivera or Policarpo, and Johnatan Pierre León, alias Pica were captured in Villavicencio; while in Bogota Hugo Alonso Sánchez Montero, alias Mauricio, Modeo or Mono (blondie), and Leonardo Alfonso Ortiz Ruiz, alias Ahijado (godson) or Erizo (hedgehog) were caught by members of the Investigation Technical Team.