Brazilian police in the Amazon city of Manaus have arrested eight men for trafficking drugs along jungle rivers to finance Colombia's leftist FARC rebels, local media reported on Saturday.
Among those arrested is Jose Samuel Sanchez, a Colombian man who police say is a member of the finance and logistics committee of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, according to newspaper and radio reports.
"The organization had direct contact with the FARC to obtain drugs, and in exchange it received logistical support and arms to transport large shipments on the rivers of the Amazon," the online edition of Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted police detective Sergio Fontes as saying.
The federal police confiscated 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of cocaine and destroyed a camp near the border with Colombia, which it says was used by the drug traffickers, Folha reported.
Globo TV showed images of large amounts of cash police had confiscated during the arrest on Friday.
Since Brazil adopted a policy of shooting down suspected drug planes in 2004, traffickers have increasingly been using rivers and roads.
An estimated 80 tonnes of cocaine enter Brazil each year from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay, and about half is transshipped to Europe and the United States, according to police and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
