U.S. JUDGE REJECTS COLOMBIAN EXTRADITION BID

*Courts: Magistrate cites weak case against Victor Tafur, accused of
helping fund a cocaine shipment.

Associates say suspect's foes may have brought false charges against
him.

PHILADELPHIA--At the request of Colombia, the United States tried--but
failed--Wednesday to extradite a former Colombian official accused by
authorities in his homeland of helping to finance a 7-ton shipment of
cocaine.

Victor Tafur would have been the first drug suspect to be handed over
by the Justice Department to Colombia under an extradition treaty
between the two countries dating to 1979.

At a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles B. Smith, lawyers
and friends of Tafur, a young attorney who now is pursuing advanced
studies in New York, portrayed him as the innocent victim of a
financial transaction that went awry. Drug traffickers have been his
personal and professional enemies, they argued.

The judge agreed, saying there was no probable cause to extradite
Tafur, 37. "You've got a gaping hole . . . in your case," he told
Justice Department lawyers here.

U.S. prosecutors were under some pressure to cooperate with their
counterparts in Colombia. The South American nation sent two accused
drug traffickers to Miami in November to stand trial, and 30 more
extradition requests by the U.S. are pending.

Justice Department officials prefer to try such drug cases in the
United States, but authorities in Colombia have noted that the
extradition treaty should be a two-way street.

The failed effort to extradite Tafur illustrates the sensitivity of
relations between the two nations.

The Clinton administration wants to strengthen anti-drug efforts in
Colombia, where most of the cocaine that reaches the United States is
produced.

The U.S. Senate is debating whether to provide $1.3 billion in aid to
help finance Colombia's anti-drug strategy and strengthen its military
with helicopters, training and intelligence data.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana has announced a $7.5-billion
strategy to fight drug trafficking and shore up his country's economy.

It is not unusual for Latin American drug fighters to be found
profiting from the narcotics trade.

In Colombia, more than two dozen politicians have been imprisoned for
accepting drug money.

However, Tafur's university associates said in court papers that he
had fought against narcotics in his homeland, making enemies both
inside and outside the Colombian government. Some of those opponents
may have conspired to bring false charges against him, they said.

Law professors and students who know Tafur said that the case against
him was weak and that his past efforts on behalf of his country
demonstrate that he would be a most unlikely drug trafficker.

Tafur's father was a high-ranking member of Colombia's Congress and an
outspoken critic of what he saw as his government's inadequate efforts
against narcotics traffickers. The elder Tafur helped draft the
extradition treaty that was being used against his son.

The elder Tafur was shot and killed outside his son's home in Cali,
Colombia, eight years ago in an assassination blamed on drug cartel
leaders.

Victor Tafur helped to run a government drug-eradication program in
Colombia called Plante, which encourages farmers to cultivate crops
other than coca, the source of cocaine.

While Tafur was supervising these efforts, six associates were
killed--and he was severely injured--when their small plane crashed in
the Andes mountains.

That led the young lawyer to seek treatment in a New York
hospital.

After his release, Tafur enrolled at Pace University School of Law in
White Plains, N.Y., where he has been pursuing a master's degree in
environmental law.

Justice Department prosecutors told Judge Smith that the Colombians
have evidence that Tafur deposited checks totaling about $350,000 into
the accounts of E.I. Caribe, which they labeled a "front company"
responsible for shipping 7 tons of cocaine.

Colombian authorities seized the shipment Dec. 3, 1998, in Cartagena
from a container ship bound for Cuba, Jamaica and Spain, according to
the complaint. Caribe allegedly owned the containers.

Joseph A. Tate, Tafur's defense attorney, said his client had no
connection with E.I. Caribe. He explained that Tafur's mother had
received 560 million Colombian pesos as back payment of a pension
belonging to her deceased husband and that Tafur sought to convert the
money into U.S. dollars and put it into a Swiss bank account for the
family.

On the advice of a money trader, Tafur wrote 13 checks made out to the
trader for deposit in a Swiss bank. Tate produced documents showing
that Tafur later received confirmation that the money had been
deposited. But without Tafur's knowledge, the checks turned up in
Caribe's accounts, improperly reendorsed to the company by the money
trader, who remains at large, Tate said.

"The key issue is Mr. Tafur's knowledge and intent to take part in a
money laundering scheme," prosecutor Tom Eicher told Smith. "We
concede there is no direct evidence of that, but the issue is
frequently determined through circumstances, and the circumstances are
present here."

But Tate insisted that "we can account for the entirety of the pension
money Victor transferred. There is no evidence at all that Victor
wrote a check to E.I. Caribe."

He further contended that Tafur risked assassination if he were
extradited to Colombia.

Smith expressed doubt that U.S. prosecutors, presenting evidence
gathered only by Colombian officials, had accurately traced the path
of the supposed drug money.

Eicher told reporters that the judge's refusal to extradite Tafur is
not subject to appeal.

However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service could seek to
revoke Tafur's immigrant visa and seek to deport him. That process,
with its many built-in appeals, could take years.