The chief of Colombia's secret police says a mob assaulted three of its agents as they tried to arrest a suspect with alleged guerrilla ties.

DAS intelligence agency director Felipe Munoz says Ivan Danilo Alarcon, wanted for rebellion and drug trafficking, was detained near a university in the city of Cali.

Munoz says Alarcon cried out he was being kidnapped and 100 people surrounded the officers. The crowd detained the agents for over an hour, threatened them with death and took their weapons and armored vests. They freed Alarcon from handcuffs, and he fled.

Munoz said Sunday that Alarcon apparently posed as a human rights activist but was in fact giving logistical support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.