COLOMBIAN DRUG SUSPECTS TAKE TO WEB

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Colombian drug lords have tried murder,
kidnapping and terrorist bombings to avoid being extradited to the
United States. Now they're taking their fight to the Internet.

With a flashy new web page, www.extradicion.org, they're apparently
trying to turn public opinion against plans by President Andres
Pastrana to extradite more drug suspects.

The page has angry diatribes against U.S. ``imperialism'' and includes
interviews with prisoners and a poll purporting to show Colombians
oppose extradition. The page was discovered by local media on Tuesday.

It was set up by ``The Extraditables,'' a group of drug suspects
arrested last year and awaiting their possible extradition.

One of the Internet-savvy inmates is Jorge Ochoa, a former Medellin
cartel boss who was among a group of 30 people arrested in October in
a dragnet dubbed Operation Millennium, Ochoa's sister, Martha Nieves
Ochoa told The Associated Press.

In November, Pastrana extradited the first Colombian to the United
States since 1990, a heroin suspect indicted in New York. The country
outlawed the practice in 1991, capitulating to a wave of bombings and
assassinations by the Medellin cartel.

Pastrana acted under a 1997 reform reinstating extradition, and has
pledged to keep sending Colombian suspects abroad.

On their web page, ``The Extraditables'' argue Pastrana is kneeling
before Washington to curry support for more than billion dollars in
anti-drug aid being debated on Capitol Hill.

U.S. officials have long pressured Colombia to turn over its nationals
for trial in the United States. Drug traffickers have received very
short sentences in Colombia for crimes that would earn them life
sentences in the United States.