Pubdate: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 Source: New York Times (NY) Section: International Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Juan Forero COLOMBIA'S HIGH COURT APPROVES EXTRADITION OF FORMER DRUG LEADER BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia's Supreme Court ruled today that a former leader of the Medellin cocaine cartel can be extradited to the United States, a blow to his family's high-profile effort to prevent him from facing charges overseas. The court ruled that Fabio Ochoa, 44, who with his brothers helped run a cocaine empire estimated to be worth $1 billion, could be extradited to Florida to face drug smuggling charges from a 1999 case. President Andres Pastrana is expected to approve the decision. The extradition would be the most significant of a Colombian drug suspect in more than a decade, when the country's security forces were locked in a violent struggle to take apart the cartel and its principal leader, Pablo Escobar. Mr. Escobar, who carried out a lethal terrorist campaign, was shot dead by police in 1993. Mr. Ochoa, along with his brothers, Jorge Luis and Juan David, surrendered to authorities in 1990 after the government promised the men they would not be extradited. Instead, the brothers served short jail terms. But American officials said that after his release, Fabio Ochoa became involved in a drug syndicate that shipped 20 to 30 tons of cocaine each month to the United States and Europe. He was arrested in 1999, and is being held in prison. His siblings angrily deny the charges, arguing that the United States is seeking his extradition for crimes committed in the 1980's. "He turned himself in, and the state signed a pact with us saying that if we committed a crime we would be extradited, but we have not committed a crime," Jorge Ochoa, now a rancher, said in a telephone interview this evening. Fabio Ochoa's relatives have started a public relations campaign to free him, featuring billboards, fliers passed and a Web site. The billboards, displaying his face, read: "Yesterday, I made a mistake. Today I am innocent." Extradition, outlawed a decade ago, was reinstated in 1997. The crimes must have been committed after that date. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth