DRUG SUSPECT FROM COLOMBIA ARRIVES IN COURT

NEWARK, July 14 -- A Colombian man who United States law enforcement
agencies say is one of the top three leaders of a Colombian drug
cartel appeared in Federal District Court here today after he was
moved under heavy guard from a prison in the South American country
and flown to the United States. Oscar Garcia Cleves, 47, of Cali
became only the second person to be extradited from his native country
to face charges in the United States since Colombia amended its
constitution in 1997. The change in the constitution restored
extradition of its citizens as part of Colombia's legal arsenal
against drug lords after extradition was outlawed in 1991. Before the
latest two extraditions, the last was in 1990.

The White House's drug policy director, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey,
applauded the development as a breakthrough and a sign that the
November extradition of Jaime Orlando Lara was just the beginning of a
wave of such actions.

No one in the drug policy office today would say exactly how many
Colombians might eventually be extradited. But last fall, government
officials estimated that as few as 10 to as many as 42 might be sent
to the United States.

Mr. Garcia-Cleves was arrested in Colombia on United States warrants
in February 1999.

Mr. Garcia-Cleves, who went by the name Sergio, is charged in a
four-count federal indictment with conspiring to ship more than 445
kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Port Newark in 1998.

Seven other people involved in the transactions in the United States
have been arrested by federal Customs Service and Drug Enforcement
Administration agents and have pleaded guilty to various charges, said
Robert J. Cleary, the United States attorney for New Jersey.

Mr. Garcia-Cleves is one of three top-ranking members of "a very
active cartel called Cartel de los Niches or 'our little niche,' "
said one Customs Service investigator.

It came into existence in the early 1990's, he said, as one of the
successors to the Medellin and Cali cartels.

Mr. Garcia-Cleves fought his extradition through the Colombian court
system for more than 15 months.

According to Colombian press reports, 200 soldiers escorted him from a
prison there to the plane that flew him, first to Miami, and then to
Newark on Thursday.