BOGOTA (AP):

America's most-wanted drug trafficker has been captured in Colombia, dealing a major blow to the country's largest remaining cocaine cartel, the government said yesterday.

Diego Montoya, who sits alongside Osama bin Laden on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives list, allegedly leads the Norte del Valle cartel, Colombia's most powerful and dangerous drug organisation. The FBI says the cartel has exported many tons of cocaine to the United States from the world's number one cocaine-producing nation.

The FBI had offered US$5 million for information leading to the arrest of Montoya, who put up no resistance as he was captured by the army on a small farm in the cartel stronghold of Valle del Cauca state, said Mario Iguaran, Colombia's chief federal prosecutor.

Colombians see Montoya's capture as the biggest victory in the drug war since Medellin Cartel leader Pablo Escobar was killed in a 1993 shoot-out.

Authorities have been closing in on his cartel since last year, when the army killed eight members of a private army believed to be protecting Montoya, but a wide network of cartel informants frustrated the search by police and soldiers.

Better known as 'Don Diego', Montoya has been in a bitter turf war with the Norte de Valle cartel's other leader, Wilber Varela, who goes by the nom de guerre 'Jabon', or 'Soap', and is reported to be living in Venezuela.

Hundreds have been killed in battles between their rival armed militias along Colombia's Pacific coast.