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.