A Colombian warlord, whose extradition to the United States was delayed for months despite being designated a peace negotiator by the country’s previous government, has been flown to California and placed in the custody of federal agents.
Geovany Andres Rojas faces drug trafficking and terrorism charges in the United States. For years, he served as spokesman and leader of the Comandos de la Frontera, a rebel group known for cocaine trafficking in Putumayo, a Colombian province bordering Ecuador and Peru.
Rojas, also known as “Araña” (“The Spider”), had been protected from extradition by former Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who asked him to participate in peace talks with the Colombian government.
But a new government, led by conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella, lifted the ban on Rojas’ extradition, signaling a shift in the country’s security strategy.
“We do not build peace by protecting narcoterrorists like this bandit,” De la Espriella said Friday, after having personally supervised the transfer of Rojas to the United States. “I ask the American authorities… that he cannot negotiate agreements that would leave his crimes unpunished.”
The U.S. Department of Justice released a photo of Rojas flanked by law enforcement after his extradition to the United States.
Ministry of Justice 
“Colombia and the Department of Justice are making a clean sweep of narcoterrorists, starting with Araña,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement.
Rojas was arrested in Bogota in February 2025, and the Colombian Supreme Court approved his extradition to the United States in October. But Petro suspended him, arguing that he needed Rojas to participate in peace talks between the Colombian government and several rebel groups, including the Comandos de la Frontera.
De la Espriella, elected in June, suspended negotiations with rebel groups and took an iron-fisted approach to crime. These include the militarization of a town in northern Colombia, where a drug gang attempted to impose a three-day curfew. The conservative leader was endorsed by President Donald Trump during his campaign and said he would work closely with the United States to combat drug trafficking.
Colombia’s government has struggled to contain violence in rural areas in recent years, as drug gangs and rebel groups fight for territory abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), following their 2016 peace deal with the government.
More than 14,000 fighters laid down their arms following this agreement which ended five decades of guerrilla warfare. But the peace deal also left a power vacuum in areas with little state presence, where illegal activities like the cocaine trade are common. Several splinter groups are now fighting over drug trafficking routes, illegal mining and extortion in these areas.
The Comandos de la Frontera emerged in 2017 and are partly led by former FARC fighters who did not adhere to the 2016 peace agreement. The group formed an alliance with the Segunda Marquetalia organization, a group founded in 2019 by former FARC commander Luciano Marin. But the alliance collapsed two years ago, leaving the Comandos de la Frontera to conduct separate negotiations with the Colombian government.
Rojas is expected to make his first court appearance Monday.
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