NY- The luxurious life of one of the world’s most notorious drug kingpins is collapsing.

Manuel Felipe Salazar allegedly smuggled more than $100 million worth of cocaine from Colombia onto the streets of New York – by hiding the premium narcotics inside huge construction cranes – over the past 2-1/2 years.

But an elite task force of NYPD cops and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents smashed his scheme and had him tossed into a maximum security prison in Colombia, authorities said yesterday.

The arrest marked a stunning turn of fortune for the golf-obsessed coke merchant who had lived extravagantly even as he sat atop a list of the most-wanted international drug traffickers for nearly 20 years, authorities told the Daily News.

“They didn’t think anyone could touch them,” said NYPD Detective John Barry, the tenacious lead investigator credited by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder with putting Salazar behind bars.

“Guys like Salazar don’t have to live by the law, so they don’t think they will ever be caught,” Barry said.

Armed with evidence gathered by the task force, U.S. federal agents and Colombian authorities arrested Salazar – known to his cohorts as Hoover – on May 23.

The agents confiscated his drug-packed heavy machines, imprisoned his top lieutenants and sent the rest of his international operation running for cover, authorities said.

Salazar, 54, could be extradited to stand trial in New York in eight to 18 months, thanks to the combined assault by the NYPD, DEA and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.

Rising from the ranks of the Cali cartel to head a distribution network that spanned four countries, he had gotten used to skirting the law, authorities said.

He had even been caught on wiretaps bragging about how he had smuggled $8 million in drug proceeds into the United States – yet still avoided punishment, authorities said.

“He’s been in business 20 years. He’d lost shipments before, had people arrested. It was the cost of doing business,” said NYPD Deputy Inspector Glen Morisano, the head of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force.

“He thought he could talk – or buy – his way out,” Morisano said.

It wasn’t until July 21 that agents finally dismantled the drug operation, authorities said.

Salazar already was in custody when investigators rolled up outside a warehouse near Port of Colon, Panama.

Inside were two hydraulic cranes, which sell for $650,000. Oil stained the floor. Mechanics and welders were at work. It looked like a typical repair depot. But stuffed into one of the red cranes were 1,345 kilos of cocaine. All of it belonged to Salazar, authorities said.

The agents confiscated the drugs and busted the alleged head of Salazar’s Panama operations, Andres (Temo) Cajiao-Barberena, whose job had been to safeguard the cocaine.

The man Salazar relied on to ship his poison from Mexico to the United States, Alvaro (Mickey) Ardila-Rojas, was also arrested, authorities said.

John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New York field division, said the international investigation highlights how local and federal law enforcement agencies are working together to bring down hard-to-reach criminals.

“It goes to show that we will chase down drug traffickers wherever they are,” Gilbride said.

The tactics used to nab Salazar are very similar to how investigators have snared international terrorists.

“The message here is: If you are flooding the streets of New York with drugs, we are going to go out and get you,” said Richard Sullivan, who oversaw the international narcotics trafficking unit in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office before stepping down after Salazar was busted.

“If you come to New York – game over.”