Australian police Thursday said they had smashed an international criminal syndicate in a joint operation with Colombia, seizing more than 480 kilograms (1,058 pounds) of drugs hidden in lemonade bottles and flower boxes.

"We are cutting the head of the snake off here," said Tim Fitzgerald from the Australian Customs and Border Protection after six men in Sydney were charged. "This syndicate has been dismantled."

The comments by China's foreign ministry came one day after Colombian authorities announced that they had detained the captain of the Hong Kong-registered Da Dan Xia and would charge him with weapons trafficking.

The general cargo ship, which has been held since Saturday, was loaded with undeclared military equipment including about 100 tonnes of gunpowder, 99 projectile bases and 3,000 artillery cartridge cases, a prosecutor's office spokesman told reporters in Bogota.

Three alleged arms traffickers accused of conspiring to provide weapons to Colombian leftist rebels for the purpose of killing Americans have been extradited to the United States, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The three were extradited Wednesday from Montenegro in the Balkans and were arraigned Thursday before a court in Washington.

Former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan arrives in Cuba on Thursday to help prod negotiators from the Colombian government and leftist guerrillas to clinch a peace agreement.

The 2001 Nobel Peace Prize winner will meet with both delegations, after declaring in Colombia that any peace agreement must be just, and must meet the standards of the international community.

Colombia's government and leftist rebels launched a new round of peace talks Wednesday, one day ahead of the arrival of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to help facilitate negotiations.

The talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), now into their third year, are resuming after a two-week hiatus.

Colombia's leftist ELN guerrilla group claimed Tuesday to have kidnapped four geologists missing since last week in the northeast of the country.

The abductions come as the National Liberation Army (ELN) is conducting talks with authorities aimed at starting a peace process. 

The United States on Friday named a special envoy to the Colombia peace talks in a bid to help nudge along negotiations to end one of the world's longest running conflicts.

Talks between the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels and the Bogota government are seeking to end a half-century old insurgency.

A Colombian judge on Thursday said there was not enough evidence to keep an American missionary jailed after he was arrested over suspected links to FARC leftist guerrillas.

Russell Martin Stendal, 59, a Christian missionary who is a longtime resident of Colombia, was detained Wednesday at police headquarters in Bogota. He turned himself in after learning of his arrest warrant. 

Masked intelligence service agents arrested the mayor of Caracas on Thursday over what socialist President Nicolas Maduro alleges was a coup plot financed by the United States and directed "from Washington."

The United States immediately dismissed the claims as "baseless and false" and said it was an attempt to blame Washington or other countries for the problems of Venezuela, which is facing economic collapse -- culminating in critical shortages of basic goods -- and rocketing crime.

An American missionary has been arrested in Colombia over suspected links with FARC leftist guerrillas, police and prosecutors said Thursday.

Russell Martin Stendal, a Christian missionary who is a longtime resident of Colombia, was detained Wednesday at police headquarters in Bogota. He presented himself to police after he learned of his arrest warrant.