One of the US government's most-wanted drug trafficking suspects has been captured in Venezuela

One of the US government's most-wanted drug trafficking suspects has been captured in Venezuela, state television has reported. The United States has offered a reward of up to $US5 million ($A5.4 million) for the arrest of Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco, and Venezuela's state television channel confirmed his capture. Lawyer Freddy Ferrer told the private TV channel Globovision that Gonzalez is innocent and criticised his 'illegal and illegitimate detention' on Saturday by a counter-drug squad at a ranch in western Venezuela. US authorities accuse Gonzalez of leading a drug ring known as the Guajira cartel and being behind the smuggling of many tonnes of cocaine to the US in the past decade. The US State Department also says Gonzalez was reportedly a member of a right-wing Colombian paramilitary faction involved in smuggling arms from Europe through Venezuela to Colombia in the La Guajira border region.