Spanish Police Snatch Suspected Colombian Hitman

Spanish police said Tuesday they had arrested a suspected Colombian hitman nicknamed "El Nino" (The Kid), accused of killing and then cutting up two compatriots whose remains were found in a Dutch canal.

The 33-year-old man is accused of murdering the two Colombian residents of Spain, whose chopped-up body parts turned up May 31 last year in a canal in the town of Pijnacker Nootdorp, near The Hague, Spanish police said in a statement.

The Colombian victims had traveled from Spain to the Netherlands for a drugs deal that went wrong, and they were murdered in a supposed settling of scores, police said.

Spanish police said they arrested the suspected hitman on January 16 in the town of Majadahonda, near Madrid, after the Dutch authorities had issued a European detention order.

The man was also charged with drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion, police said.