MADRID, Feb 19: Spanish police said on Thursday they had arrested an alleged member of Colombia's defunct Cali cartel wanted by the United States for money laundering.

A police spokeswoman said the suspect, a 63-year-old Colombian named only as Fernando Antonio G.C., had been in charge of a financial network that laundered a trillion dollars - more than the annual gross domestic product of Spain - for the Cali cartel between 1982 and 1995.

The man was arrested in Barcelona as he was about to board a flight to Bogota, police said. The notorious Cali cartel ceased to exist in 1995 when its founders, brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, were jailed.

US authorities in December indicted the brothers with new drug trafficking charges, accusing them of continuing to run the trafficking ring from behind bars. -Reuters