(CNN) Walter Patricio "Guacho" Arizala Vernaza, one of the most notorious FARC leaders, was shot dead in a joint military and police raid, Colombian President Iván Duque told a national television audience Friday.

The President thanked the police and members of the military for their "heroic" efforts.

"Colombia deserves to breathe more freedom every day. Today many communities in Colombia are going to sleep calm because one of the most horrendous criminals that has known our country has fallen," Duque said in Medellin.

of a rogue offshoot of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. In June his group was blamed for the Arizala Vernaza was a leaderof a rogue offshoot of FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. In June his group was blamed for the killings of two journalists for Ecuador's El Comercio newspaper, Javier Ortega and Paúl Rivas, and their driver, Efraín Segarra. The three were abducted in March.

Arizala Vernaza was one of the most wanted fugitives in Ecuador and Colombia.

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