BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian warlord, whose extradition to the United States had been delayed for several months while he was designated a peace negotiator by the country's previous government, was flown to California and placed in custody of federal agents.
Geovany Andres Rojas faces drug trafficking and terrorism charges in the United States. For years, he acted as a spokesman and leader of Comandos de la Frontera, a rebel group known for trafficking cocaine in Putumayo, a Colombian province that borders Ecuador and Peru.
Rojas, who is also known as “the spider,” had been protected from extradition by former Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who had 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’s extradition, signaling a shift in the nation’s security strategy.
“You don’t build peace by protecting narco-terrorists like this bandit,” De la Espriella said on Friday, after he personally supervised Rojas’ transfer to the U.S. “I ask U.S. authorities … that he cannot negotiate deals that will leave his crimes unpunished.”
Rojas was arrested in Bogota in February 2025, and Colombia’s Supreme Court approved his extradition to the U.S. in October. But Petro suspended it, arguing he needed Rojas to participate in peace talks between the Colombian government and several rebel groups, including Comandos de la Frontera.
De la Espriella, who was elected in June, has suspended talks with rebel groups and has taken an iron-fist approach to crime. It recently included militarizing a city in the north of Colombia, where a drug gang attempted to impose a three-day curfew. The conservative leader was endorsed by President Donald Trump while campaigning and has said he will work closely with the United States to fight drug trafficking.
Colombia’s government has struggled to contain violence in rural areas in recent years, as drug gangs and rebel groups fight over territory abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, following their 2016 peace deal with the government.
More than 14,000 fighters laid down their weapons as a result of the agreement that ended five decades of guerrilla warfare. But the peace deal also left a power vacuum in regions with little state presence, where illegal activities like the cocaine trade are common. Several breakaway groups are now fighting over drug trafficking routes, illegal mines and extortion rackets in these areas.
Comandos de la Frontera emerged in 2017 and is partly led by former FARC fighters who did not join the 2016 peace deal. The group formed an alliance with the Segunda Marquetalia organization, a group founded in 2019 by former FARC commander Luciano Marin. But the alliance fell apart two years ago, leaving Comandos de la Frontera to conduct separate negotiations with Colombia’s government.
Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella speaks during an event to present new homes to victims of an earthquake in Buenaventura, Colombia, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on an ambulance attending the scene of a suicide bomb attack at a roadside police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan that killed at least 12 people on Saturday and wounded about 35 others, officials said.
The attack involving an explosives-laden vehicle occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial emergency service. Local police chief Safdar Baloch said most of those killed and wounded were security personnel and passersby.
The blast destroyed the sprawling checkpoint, and witnesses said gunshots were also heard after the attack.
Faizi said gunmen opened fire on an ambulance as emergency crews transported victims to a nearby hospital, killing a rescue worker and wounding two others. Two women and a child were among those killed in the suicide bombing, he said.
The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan has experienced a surge in militant violence in recent years, much of it claimed by the TTP and the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group primarily active in neighboring Balochistan province.
The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, which returned to power in 2021.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, offered condolences to the victims’ families.
Zardari described the targeting of civilians and law enforcement personnel as “highly condemnable” and called for intensified action against the Pakistani Taliban, which he accused of carrying out “heinous and brutal acts” with foreign support.
Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing TTP members to operate from Afghan territory and have demanded that Kabul prevent cross-border attacks. Afghan authorities deny permitting their territory to be used for attacks against other countries.
Saturday’s bombing came two days after fighting along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border killed at least 13 Afghan Taliban fighters, according to Pakistan’s government. The clash followed Pakistani strikes this week on suspected militant hideouts inside Afghanistan.
The renewed hostilities threaten mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia aimed at securing lasting peace between the neighboring countries.
Dera Ismail Khan is near South Waziristan, a former militant stronghold where Pakistan’s military has conducted several operations in recent years.
Militants frequently target security forces in the region. In December 2023, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the main gate of a police station in Dera Ismail Khan, killing at least 23 security personnel in one of the area’s deadliest attacks. Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a small militant group believed to be an offshoot of the TTP, claimed responsibility.
Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
In this photo taken with a smartphone, volunteers transport an injured victim of a suicide attack on a roadside police checkpoint upon his arrival at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Kashif Naveed)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, volunteers transport an injured victim of a suicide attack on a roadside police checkpoint upon his arrival at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Kashif Naveed)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, volunteers transport an injured victim of a suicide attack on a roadside police checkpoint upon his arrival at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Kashif Naveed)
