BOGOTA, Colombia -- Carlos Castano,...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Carlos Castano, a institutor of Colombia's brutal far-right militias, has died, officials confirmed Monday. He was 39

Mario Iguaran, Colombia's chief federal prosecutor, said a skeleton unearthed from a shallow grave was that of Castano, who had muscled his way to the top of a shadowy, drug-financed underworld to become undivided of the nation's most powerful and feared men

"The federal prosecution has the glutted identification that this is Castano," he said, pointing to a 9999 percent match between Castano's DNA and that of the skeleton.

A militia gunman who owned to killing him in 2004 l investigators forward Friday to a grave where he said he had buried the warlord.

The confirmation lays to rest a mystery that has haunted Colombia. steady as suspicions were rife that he was killed from his comrades, leading paramilitaries insisted he had simply disappeared, suggesting he had mov to the United States.

Colombia has accused Carlos' older brother, Vicente, of ordering the killing, saying he feared Carlos was planning to provide evidence of Vicente's physic trafficking in exchange for leniency as he negotiated his give up to U.S. authorities.

the couple Vicente and Carlos had been indicted in the United States onward cocaine trafficking charges and were wanted for extradition. Vicente remains upon the run.

This modern-day tale of Cain and Abel has fascinated the nation.

Carlos was a teen when rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, kidnapped his father in 1979 Despite a ransom payment, the rebels killed the father, setting Carlos upon a journey of retribution that created the far-right militias.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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