COLOMBIAN GUILTY IN NEW YORK HEROIN RING

The first Colombian extradited to the United States in nearly a decade
pleaded guilty yesterday in Manhattan federal court to charges of smuggling
heroin and selling it in New York City during the late 1990's.

According to prosecutors, Jaime Orlando Lara, who was extradited in
November 1999, led a major family-run network of smugglers that transported
heroin, hidden in clothing and aerosol cans, to New York by way of Mexico
and Texas. At one point, law enforcement officials said, the ring imported
25 pounds of heroin a week, selling it for more than three times what they
paid for it.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 5 before Judge Richard M. Berman of the
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr.
Lara could face life in prison.

The resumption of extraditions was a historic reversal for Colombia, which
produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine and is a fast-growing producer
of heroin. The country had outlawed extradition in 1991 after a wave of
bombings and killings allegedly masterminded by the Medellin trafficker
Pablo Escobar, who has since died. That ban strained ties with the United
States until December 1997, when Colombia reinstated extradition.

Two of Mr. Lara's sisters, his brother-in-law, and nine other members of
the smuggling ring were arrested in New York and also pleaded guilty to
drug-related charges in earlier cases dating back to April 1999.