COLOMBIAN SUSPECT WON'T BE EXTRADITED

Colombian attorney and anti-drug crusader Victor Tafur will not be
extradited to his homeland to face drug-trafficking charges, a judge in
Philadelphia ruled Wednesday.

Tafur had been sought by Colombian authorities since September on charges
he helped finance the largest cocaine shipment ever-seized in Colombia, a
7-ton cache intercepted in the Caribbean port of Cartagena in December 1998.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Smith, who had expressed doubts about the
government's case from the start, said prosecutors failed to show probable
cause.