SUSPECTED DRUG LORD EXTRADITED TO THE U.S.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Police here handed over Fabio Ochoa to U.S. authorities
Friday night, concluding the most prominent extradition of an alleged
Colombian drug lord since the late 1980s, the head of Colombia's
anti-narcotics police said.

Speaking moments after the extradition, Gen. Gustavo Socha said Colombian
police transferred Ochoa to U.S. custody at a heavily guarded hangar next
to Bogota's El Dorado International Airport shortly after 9 p.m. The
44-year-old suspect was placed aboard a plane bound for the United States.

Ochoa's voyage is expected to end in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he faces
a federal indictment charging that, at one time, he and others conspired to
ship 30 tons of cocaine a month to the U.S. Ochoa's wealthy horse-breeding
family vehemently denies the charges against him.

"This is completely absurd," Martha Nieves, Ochoa's sister, said of the
extradition when reached by phone in Medellin, about 160 miles northwest of
Bogota, the capital. "The government won. Justice did not win."

U.S. officials insist that alleged drug lords can buy or bully their way
out of court in Colombia, making extradition a key component in the war on
trafficking.

Ochoa's hand-over came just hours after a Bogota circuit judge reversed her
decision to suspend the extradition, which had been based on a procedural
query by Ochoa's lawyer. Ochoa's family had filed 14 appeals to block the
extradition.

President Andres Pastrana approved Ochoa's extradition last week.

Ochoa is the youngest of three brothers who served as henchmen in the
much-feared and now-defunct Medellin drug cartel. In 1990, the trio struck
a deal with the Colombian government that allowed them to surrender, avoid
extradition to the U.S., legitimize their business holdings and serve
reduced sentences.

But Fabio Ochoa made headlines again in October 1999 when he was arrested
in a sting operation by U.S. and Colombian counter-narcotics agents. U.S.
prosecutors alleged that Ochoa had returned to his old trade.

Ochoa's extradition comes despite tireless lobbying by his family, which
has erected billboards and launched a Web site to proclaim his innocence,
http:""www.fabioochoa.com. "Yesterday, I made a mistake," Ochoa is cited as
saying on the home page. "Today, I am innocent."