COCAINE FLOWS DESPITE ARREST

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The extradition of reputed drug boss Fabio Ochoa to
Miami--seen as a victory for U.S. drug agents--won't put a dent into the
world's flourishing cocaine trade, Colombia's top anti-drug lawman said
Saturday.

"There are millions of consumers and thousands of people willing to supply
that demand," said Gen. Gustavo Socha, head of Colombia's anti-narcotics
police.

Ochoa, who arrived in Miami early Saturday to face trial, was a leading
member of the Medellin cocaine cartel, which waged a war of terrorism in
the 1980s and early 1990s to pressure the Colombian government to bar
extraditions to the United States.

The Medellin cartel had moved amateurish smuggling operations into the big
leagues, delivering tons of cocaine to the United States by plane. But the
cartel's heyday ended when its top leader, Pablo Escobar, was shot to death
by police in 1993. The smuggling landscape has since changed dramatically,
with no dominant gang.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and their right-wing
paramilitary foes control the production of cocaine by protecting and
taxing farmers who grow cocaine-producing crops and clandestine processing
labs.

The purified cocaine is then picked up by various smuggling groups for
shipment abroad. The system works well: Colombia has for years supplied
more than 80 percent of the world's cocaine. Despite strong cooperation in
anti-drug efforts by President Andres Pastrana's government, no one has
managed to break the country's domination of the trade.

U.S.-backed anti-drug efforts, which will be examined by Secretary of State
Colin Powell during a visit to Bogota on Tuesday and Wednesday, have had
only mixed success.

A decade ago, the extradition of Ochoa would have provoked a terrorist
backlash. Today, few expect a violent reaction.

Still, the State Department warned Americans in Colombia to take safety
precautions. The last attack thought to be in response to the government's
extradition policy was in November 1999 when a bomb in Bogota exploded,
killing eight bystanders.

Some Colombians are upset that Ochoa, who is accused of belonging to a gang
that smuggled 30 tons of cocaine a month, was taken away for trial in the
United States.

In 1991, Ochoa was the first major Colombian trafficker to surrender in
return for a promise that he would not be extradited. But U.S. prosecutors
say Ochoa resumed transporting cocaine after leaving a Colombian jail in 1996.

He was arrested in 1999 along with dozens of other suspected traffickers in
a joint DEA-Colombian police operation.