Pubdate: Thu, 23 Aug 2001
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Jared Kotler, Associated Press

COLOMBIA COURT AGREES TO SEND DRUG TRAFFICKER TO U.S.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's Supreme Court on Wednesday approved a U.S. 
request to extradite Fabio Ochoa, one of the highest-ranking former members 
of the violent Medellin cocaine cartel.

The decision, pending its expected approval by President Andres Pastrana, 
paves the way for the most prominent extradition of a Colombian drug 
suspect since the 1980s.

Ochoa, once a close associate of the late 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.

Should Pastrana sign the extradition papers, Ochoa would be flown to the 
United States, where 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.

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 to the government 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 dozens of handovers 
to U.S. authorities. Ochoa and two brothers were major figures in Escobar's 
now-disbanded Medellin cartel.

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.

That 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. Cartel henchmen set 
off bombs and assassinated scores of officials before the violence finally 
ceased after police killed Escobar in 1993.

The Ochoas 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 Alejandro Bernal Madrigal, a fellow Colombian also 
under arrest in Colombia and wanted in the United States.

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.

According to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration document, Ochoa and 
Bernal Madrigal were cartel associates in the 1980s and, at the time of 
their 1999 arrests, were "two of the most powerful international 
traffickers of cocaine in the world."
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