Bogota, March 3 (RHC) -- The military leader of the criminal gang Los Urabeños, Heriberto Zafra (aka Diego Montoya), was arrested in the northern Colombian department of Santander, in a rural area of Lebrija.

According to authorities, the detainee has pending investigations on charges of conspiracy, extortion, illegal possession of firearms, and homicide.

Colonel Jesús Paredes, commander of Santander police department, said that Zafra is a dangerous individual, responsible for killing at least 20 people in the last two years.

In March 2004, the detainee was sentenced to 26 years of prison for several crimes, reported the journal Vanguardia. Months later, a court in Bucaramanga granted him permission to leave the prison for 72 hours and he never returned.

Last year, authorities managed to arrest 1,508 members of Los Urabeños, which along with Los Rastrojos, are the country's most powerful criminal gangs, created by paramilitaries involved with drug trafficking.