Colombia's 'chief kidnapper' held

The final five hostages were freed in December

A Colombian paramilitary leader accused of kidnapping eight tourists last year has been arrested, police say.

Jose Celestino Chamorro is allegedly a regional leader of the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN).

Judicial police chief Col Oscar Naranjo said Mr Chamorro ordered the abduction of four Israelis, two Britons, a German and a Spaniard on 12 September, 2003.

Briton Matthew Scott, 19, escaped within days of his capture. The others were later released.

We're talking about an individual with more than 22 years at the service of terrorism Col Oscar Naranjo

Mr Chamorro, better known as Parmenio, was seized in the northern region of La Guajira, on the border with Venezuela, said Mr Naranjo.

Seized at gunpoint

Three other suspects were arrested at the same time, he said.

"We're talking about an individual with more than 22 years at the service of terrorism," said Mr Naranjo, quoted by the AFP news agency.

He said Mr Chamorro was behind abductions and banditry throughout the region.

The Western hostages were seized at gunpoint in September last year, near the spectacular 2,500-year-old Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) Indian ruins.

Uribe has made fighting rebels his priority

Mr Scott escaped, and two others, Asier Huegun of Spain and Reinhilt Weigel of Germany, were released on 24 November.

Briton Mark Henderson and Israelis Beni Daniel, Ortaz Ohayon, Ido Guy and Erez Altawil were finally freed on 22 December, after mediation by the Catholic Church.

The ELN is one of several groups blamed for Colombia's 3,000 kidnappings a year, the government says.

The government of President Alvaro Uribe has attempted to crack down on the rebels.

In July it claimed the measures were working, and that the number of hostages taken in the first six months of this year had dropped by a half compared with the same period in 2003.