Pubdate: Thu, 23 Aug 2001
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2001 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Author: Jared Kotler (AP)

EX-DRUG BOSS FIGHTING EXTRADITION

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - His legal appeals falling by the wayside, Colombian 
drug suspect Fabio Ochoa took to his fight against extradition to new heights.

Tall billboards suddenly sprouted up along highways showing Ochoa's forlorn 
face and proclaiming the former Medellin cartel leader's innocence of U.S. 
charges that he was back in the drug business.

But neither the billboards - nor Ochoa's slick Internet page detailing his 
defense - fazed Colombia's Supreme Court, which on Wednesday approved a 
U.S. request to bring him to justice in the United States.

Pending likely approval by President Andres Pastrana, Ochoa's handover to 
U.S. authorities would be the most prominent extradition of a Colombian 
drug suspect since the 1980s.

His extradition could also prompt some fears here of a violent backlash 
like the one Colombia lived through a decade ago when it tried to turn over 
high-level traffickers to the United States.

Ochoa, once a close associate of the late, ultra-violent Medellin cocaine 
boss Pablo Escobar, was one of 31 people arrested in Colombia in an October 
1999 crackdown on alleged members of a major new cocaine smuggling operation.

He faces a Florida indictment for his alleged role in an international 
syndicate said to have been shipping 30 tons of cocaine a month to the 
United States via Mexico.

"We believe this is a major, major drug trafficker who is going to face 
criminal justice," said Leo Arreguin, the chief in Bogota of the U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration, which helped Colombian authorities to track 
down Ochoa.

The Supreme Court also approved extradition for two other drug suspects 
captured in the crackdown known as Operation Millennium, Jairo Mesa Sanin 
and Mario Sanchez Cristancho.

The president has 15 days to approve or reject the extradition. The 
suspects are then entitled to a final appeal that must be decided within 10 
additional days. Legal experts said Ochoa is unlikely to avoid U.S. justice.

Seeking improved ties with the United States, Pastrana resumed extraditions 
two years ago after a 10-year hiatus and has approved the handovers of 27 
Colombians to American authorities.

Ochoa, the baby-faced son of a prominent horse-breeding clan, was the first 
major Colombian trafficker to hand himself over to authorities in the early 
1990s under a deal that promised he would not be extradited for past 
crimes. He and two older brothers were major figures in Escobar's 
now-disbanded Medellin cartel.

The deal, and a subsequent constitutional reform outlawing extradition,were 
struck in hopes of ending a terror campaign waged by the Medellin cartel to 
bully the government into refraining from extraditions. Under the slogan 
"Better a tomb in Colombia than a jail cell in the United States" cartel 
henchmen set off bombs and assassinated scores of officials. The violence 
finally ceased after police killed Escobar in 1993.

The Ochoa brothers left jail in 1996, pledging to never get involved in 
drug trafficking again. A December 1997 constitutional change reinstated 
extradition, but only for crimes committed after that date.

U.S. prosecutors believe Ochoa violated his promise and was trafficking 
after the cutoff date as part of a large group whose cocaine shipments were 
allegedly brokered by a fellow Colombian also under arrest in Colombia and 
wanted in the United States, Alejandro Bernal Madrigal.

The U.S. extradition request, based largely on bugged conversations between 
Ochoa and Bernal Madrigal, says Ochoa contributed his know-how to the group 
and helped provide cocaine, airplanes and smuggling routes. Ochoa, who is 
in a Bogota prison, has elaborately proclaimed his innocence, using the 
internet and billboard ads. Ochoa acknowledges his contacts with Bernal 
Madrigal, but claims on the Internet site that he was just discussing a 
property deal with an old friend who shares his affinity for horses.

Colombia's big drug cartels are defunct, but cocaine and heroin trade still 
flourishes under less flashy and violent groups. U.S. officials have made 
extradition a priority, saying traffickers can use threats and bribes to 
avoid justice in Colombia.
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