MEDELLÍN, Colombia (CMC) — Colombia has confirmed that Surinamese-born drug kingpin Eldrich Boedhoe has been arrested in the city of Medellín, ending an 11-year manhunt.

Boedhoe, who still has to serve a 12-year prison sentence in the Netherlands, had considered himself untouchable in the South American country and for years served as a key player in the transatlantic illegal drugs trade.

Video footage released by Colombian authorities shows the man in his fifties sitting quietly on a terrace in the upscale Laureles neighbourhood. The peace was abruptly disturbed when a Colombian cop suddenly pulled him from his chair and put him in handcuffs. Boedhoe, who appeared completely surprised, did not resist arrest.

Boedhoe has since been handed over to the Colombian Public Prosecution Service. He is being held in custody awaiting his extradition proceedings.

Authorities said the arrest is the result of intensive international cooperation. INTERPOL had been searching for the Surinamese-Dutch national for years using the so-called “Red Notice”, an international arrest warrant for the most wanted criminals.

He was eventually traced to Colombia, and according to judicial authorities, Boedhoe fulfilled a crucial, coordinating a pivotal role within an international drug cartel. They said that the network was involved in collecting and shipping cocaine from Colombia to Europe, with the Netherlands, France and Spain as the main final destinations.

The investigation that led to his conviction at the time focused on cocaine smuggling in 2012. At the time, the cartel used drug couriers on regular scheduled flights, hiding the drugs in suitcases with false bottoms to circumvent airport checks.

Boedhoe’s criminal career is impressive. As early as October 2010, he was sentenced by the Court of Appeal in the Netherlands to a prison term of four and a half years for his involvement in the smuggling of an estimated 120 kilos of cocaine. At the time, he organised drug shipments hidden in shipping containers with bananas.

After serving this sentence, he emerged as a “drug kingpin” eventually leading to his 12-year jail term for large-scale drug trafficking. But he escaped in 2015, settling in Medellín, the notorious birthplace of the Colombian drug trade.

The authorities said that during his 11 years on the run, Boedhoe managed to forge alliances with local Colombian drug organisations and continued to coordinate the logistics behind cocaine shipments to Europe.

They said his fondness for riding his motorcycle through the city ultimately proved fatal, and law enforcement agencies set their sights on him and followed him on Sunday to the terrace in Laureles, where his freedom came to an end.