COLOMBIA IGNORES THREATS, SENDS ALLEGED DRUG CARTEL BOSS TO U.S.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The alleged leader of one of Colombia's most powerful
drug cartels was sent yesterday to the United States to stand trial, days
after drug dealers threatened violence if authorities carried out the
extradition.

A small army of security forces escorted Alberto Orlandez Gamboa onto the
Drug Enforcement Administration's plane at Bogota's international airport,
said President Andres Pastrana, speaking from Medelln.

Gamboa faces charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that he conspired
to import and distribute thousands of pounds of cocaine from Colombia to
the United States.

Gamboa, who U.S. authorities say is the head of an international
drug-trafficking and money-laundering organization headquartered in
Barranquilla, is also accused of smuggling cocaine to Europe and conspiring
to launder millions of dollars in drug profits.

After a 10-year moratorium on U.S. extradition, Gamboa becomes the third
Colombian whom Pastrana has spirited to the United States to face drug
charges in nine months. Pastrana favors extraditing accused drug
traffickers to the United States, where stiffer penalties often await them.

Gamboa's extradition comes three days after a newspaper ad paid for by a
band of drug dealers known as the Our Country Movement threatened to
assassinate supreme court judges and government officials unless
authorities here reversed their decision.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government added two Colombians to its list of 524
individuals and companies suspected of drug trafficking and banned from
doing business in this country.

The two, Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya and Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia,
are responsible for huge volumes of drugs that have entered the United
States, the Treasury Department said.