EFFORTS FAILING TO EXTRADITE SUSPECTS

It's been more than a year since a federal grand jury indicted Floralba
Arboleda as part of an alleged drug ring in Baton Rouge.

She's never set foot in an American courtroom to face the charges.

The reason: Arboleda fled the country and remains in her native Colombia.

Arboleda, along with Hugo Hernandez who is wanted in an unrelated case, is
one of two fugitives wanted in Baton Rouge who have fled to other countries
- -- and federal prosecutors are having a tough time getting either extradited.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Lyman Thornton of Baton Rouge said
prosecutors are making an effort to return both to Baton Rouge.

Arboleda, 42, is believed to have fled to South America from Houston before
a federal grand jury indicted her and four others in October 2001, accusing
them of running cocaine between South America, Houston and Baton Rouge.

Arboleda, charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute
cocaine, has since been arrested, Thornton said.

"She's in custody in Colombia," Thornton said, but declined to elaborate on
the process of getting Arboleda returned to the United States.

Prosecutors say Hernandez, a central figure in a bogus farm loan scheme,
bolted for his native Nicaragua on the eve of indictment in February 1999.

Hernandez, a former Farm Service Agency Officer in New Roads, is charged
with making false statements on income tax returns, accepting bribes, money
laundering and filing false loan documents.

The family of his ex-wife, Laura Marie Tijerino, who has been missing for
at least 20 years, also wants Hernandez back to quiz him about her whereabouts.

"We just need to figure out how to get him back in the U.S.," said Michelle
Ameiorsano, Tijerino's sister.

Getting Hernandez, who has never been arrested on the charges, and Arboleda
back on American soil won't be easy, said former U.S. Attorney Brian Jackson.

Jackson, who is now in private practice, declined to talk about the
specifics of the cases, but said extradition with Central and South
American countries is not a simple process.

The reason: The treaties between those countries and the United States are
outdated, Jackson said.

In some cases, technology has outpaced the revision of the treaties, which
don't include wire fraud, bank fraud or mail fraud as criminal offenses,
Jackson said.

"At the time they were drawn, the law didn't recognize those offenses,"
Jackson said.

In the case of Colombia, only in recent years has that country allowed its
citizens to be extradited, and even then, getting the person to the United
States has been problematic, Jackson said.

"Only recently has Colombia begun to extradite its own citizens to the
United States," Jackson said. "For a long time, they refused to do so."

The most notable fugitive caught in Colombia and sent to the United States
was Fabio Ochoa, who was sent to the United States in August 2001.

Ochoa faces trial in Florida for allegedly helping provide cocaine,
airplanes, smuggling routes and expertise to a group of drug traffickers.

A federal grand jury in Baton Rouge indicted Ochoa in 1986 in the murder of
Barry Seal, who was shot and killed earlier that year in the parking lot of
a halfway house on Airline Highway.

Seal was providing information on the Medellin cartel to federal officials
around the time he was killed. Prosecutors were using his information to
build a case against Ochoa's brother.

Ochoa, a member of the Medellin drug cartel, was charged along with two
others with violating Seal's civil rights by having him killed.

Ochoa won't be tried in Baton Rouge, but instead faces a jury in Florida as
part of the extradition agreement.

"Often there are difficulties in extraditing citizens (of foreign
countries) if they face the death penalty or life in prison," Jackson said.