Behind bars, the 'Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean' is finally arrested after historic 10-year manhunt

After a decade-long manhunt Puerto Rico's major drugs kingpin was finally behind bars last night.

Authorities have painted Jose Figueroa Agosto as the Caribbean's version of Pablo Escobar, the notorious Colombian drug kingpin of the 1980s.

He is said to be one of the 'major drug traffickers in history'.

Eight hours after he was arrested, his girlfriend Soleida Félix Morales turned herself in through a lawyer.

For 10 years, the 45-year-old Puerto Rican fed his underworld mystique by pulling off narrow escapes and taunting police in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that is attractive to traffickers as America's southernmost border.

You're out of luck: Jose Figueroa Agostos, seen handcuffed and flanked by by DEA agents, was arrested in Dominican yesterday

Figueroa's extraordinary luck finally ran out this weekend, when he was caught while driving through a working-class neighbourhood in the Dominican capital of San Juan.

When he realized he was being followed, he tried to flee on foot but a force of U.S. Marshals, FBI and DEA agents, together with Puerto Rican police captured him. He was wearing a wig as a disguise.

US Marshal Antonio Torres told reporters that when Figueroa was arrested 'We asked him his name, and he simply answered that we knew who he was.'

Eight hours later his girlfriend Morales, 32, believed to have been on the run with him, turned herself in through a lawyer.

She is expected to be extradited next week to face money laundering charges in the U.S.

In the meantime, she is said to be heavily guarded after a Puerto Rican judge reportedly claimed she knew so much that her life was 'in danger'.

Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuno told a news conference that he had phoned Dominican President Leonel Fernandez to discuss the arrest and reiterate the importance of future security collaborations between the two governments.

Police chief Jose Figueroa Sancha told the same news conference that the kingpin's arrest 'not only represents a gain for island and federal authorities ... it is an international gain.'

The 'world's greatest outlaw': Pablo Escobar on the right, the Colombian drug-runner who became semi-legendary

Though the exact scale of Figueroa's drugs empire remains a mystery, some sense of the size of the operation emerged following a raid in the Dominican Republic last September.

It netted several cars, including an armoured Mercedes Benz with $4.6 million in cash inside, and a laptop computer full of evidence. Dominican authorities also confiscated a ranch with a small zoo - along with at least nine vehicles, including two Ferraris.

'He's got properties, boats, cars, jewellery and cash out there' said Javier F. Pena, special agent in charge of the Caribbean division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration..

For years, he 'hid' in the open in the Dominican Republic, building ties with upper-crust Dominicans who appear regularly in society magazines. Since the September raid, several people have been jailed on charges that they laundered money or otherwise aided Figueroa.

Investigators are concerned that his conspirators have included police and other officials.

Figueroa reputedly funnelled Colombian drugs to the U.S. mainland through Puerto Rico, where he walked out of a prison in November 1999 after presenting guards with a forged release order.

He had served only four years of a 209-year sentence for killing a man suspected of stealing a cocaine shipment.

Within a month, he moved to the Dominican Republic, where he was detained as part of a drug investigation in 2001. He was released after two weeks; he used an alias and authorities couldn't determine his true identity.

He is wanted in the Dominican Republic on kidnapping, money-laundering, drug-trafficking and murder charges.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had personally pledged full cooperation to capture the fugitive, who was wanted on a U.S. Marshals warrant for his prison escape and for filing a false passport application.

He also was the target of a U.S. task force focusing on major drug suppliers to the U.S.

The Saturday capture of Jose Figueroa Agosto in Puerto Rico's capital was a big break, but it also means that members of his violent group may try to wrest control of his share of the illegal trade, said Javier Pena.

'This guy was truly the leader of his organization,' Pena told The Associated Press on Sunday. 'And anytime the top guy is taken down, his people can start to fight one another to assume control. There is always concern that people will be jockeying for position, so it's a matter of time to see if there will be bloodshed.