Pubdate: Sun, 09 Sep 2001
Source: Deseret News (UT)
Copyright: 2001 Deseret News Publishing Corp.
Contact:  http://www.desnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/124
Author: Knight Ridder Newspapers

SUSPECTED DRUG BOSS TO FACE CHARGES IN US

MIAMI - Under heavy guard, Fabio Ochoa - one of the princes of Colombia's 
fabled Medellin cocaine cartel - arrived in Miami early Saturday morning as 
the sole prisoner aboard a 19-seat aircraft belonging to his old enemy, the 
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Grim-faced and facing a federal drug-smuggling indictment from 1999, Ochoa 
said nothing after the plane, packed with heavily armed agents, touched 
down at 5:40 a.m. at Miami International Airport after refueling at 
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, en route from Bogota, Colombia.

The military-style operation to extract him from Colombia and place him in 
an extra-high security jail cell in Miami involved two planes, a convoy, 
the closing of I-95 by the Florida Highway Patrol and a law enforcement 
legion ready for anything.

The 45-year-old Ochoa is no ordinary prisoner.

In fact, U.S. officials say, he is the most important trafficker to be 
extradited since Colombia resumed turning drug suspects over to the United 
States in late 1997, and he is the most legendary since the flamboyant 
Carlos Lehder was given to the DEA in 1986.

The Colombian government's decision to turn Ochoa over "shows a change of 
policy," said Terry Burke, a former deputy director of the DEA whose career 
included heading intelligence operations against Ochoa and his two 
brothers. "That's certainly positive."

Ochoa's extradition may send a message to other drug lords of the past, 
said Burke, who now does international private investigations. "Some who 
became gentlemen farmers have got to be wondering if they are next," he 
said - alluding to Ochoa's brothers, who now run a horse breeding farm in 
Colombia.

Aloyma Sanchez, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Ochoa will 
make his initial appearance at 1:30 p.m. Monday before a federal 
magistrate. A law enforcement source said Ochoa is being held under armed 
guard in "a high security environment" at the Miami federal detention center.

Ochoa faces a federal indictment in Fort Lauderdale charging him with 
smuggling cocaine into the United States through Mexico between 1998 and 
1999, conspiring to import cocaine, conspiring to possess cocaine with 
intent to distribute and laundering money in a foreign country, said Joe 
Kilmer, DEA spokesman in Miami. Conviction carries maximum penalties of 10 
years to life or 20 years to life, depending on the charge.
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