COLOMBIA EXTRADITES CARTEL FIGURE TO MIAMI

MIAMI, Sept. 8 - His peaceful bid to avoid extradition ended, Fabio Ochoa
was delivered to the United States today to face charges that he belonged
to a gang that smuggled in 30 tons of cocaine a month.

Mr. Ochoa, a former leader of the Medellin cartel, is the highest-profile
Colombian sent to face charges in the United States since Colombia revived
extraditions in 1997.

Joe Kilmer, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that
Mr. Ochoa faced a bail hearing on Monday before a federal magistrate judge
and that the government would ask for pretrial detention.

Mr. Ochoa's lawyer, Jose Quinon, told The Miami Herald the case would "boil
down to the fairness of the American justice system in how it treats
someone who has been labeled a Colombian drug lord."

"The question is whether we can get past the label and get a fair trial,"
Mr. Quinon said.

Despite years of drug-fighting efforts backed by the United States,
Colombia remains the world's leading exporter of cocaine and a major source
of heroin sold in this country.

The State Department warned Americans in Colombia to take extra
precautions, noting "the past history of narcotics traffickers conducting
bombings in public areas as a reprisal for or deterrent to extradition."

Mr. Ochoa had fought extradition with legal appeals and an Internet page
outlining his defense, and by erecting billboards in Bogota and Medellin
proclaiming, "Yesterday I made a mistake; today I am innocent."

That struggle ended on Friday, when he was put on a D.E.A. plane in Bogota
after a Colombian judge lifted an order he had granted earlier suspending
the handover.

In 1990, Mr. Ochoa surrendered in return for a promise that he would not be
extradited.

When he and two older brothers were released from jail in 1996, they
promised never to get involved in the drug business again.

The extradition request, based on taped conversations, says Mr. Ochoa broke
that promise, contributing his know-how to the exporting ring.