U.S. WANTS DRUG SUSPECTS EXTRADITED

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The United States has requested the extradition of
30 Colombian drug suspects arrested in a major sweep two months ago, the
U.S. ambassador said Friday.

Among those named in the petition is Fabio Ochoa, a former top leader of
the notorious Medellin cocaine cartel.

The requests were delivered as Colombia, the source country for 80 percent
of the world's cocaine, is resuming extradition of its nationals after a
nine-year hiatus.

Colombian police acting on a U.S. request arrested Ochoa and 29 other men
and women on October 13. The suspects are accused of belonging to an
international mafia that smuggled 30 tons of cocaine a month into the
United States through Mexico.

Ambassador Curtis Kamman said U.S. authorities are also preparing
extradition papers for five Colombians arrested in Bogota this week,
suspected members of a gang that killed a retired New York City policeman
in an August shootout in Manhattan.

Extradition requests normally take at least six months to be reviewed, as
they must be approved by Colombia's justice minister, Supreme Court and
president.

Last month, President Andres Pastrana handed over to U.S. authorities Jaime
Orlando Lara, a heroin suspect who became the first Colombian national
extradited to the United States since 1990.

Colombia outlawed extradition in 1991, capitulating to terrorist bombings
and assassinations by the Medellin cartel and its feared boss, Pablo
Escobar, who was killed two years later. Acceding to U.S. pressure,
Colombia reinstated the practice in a 1997 constitutional reform.

Extradition has long been a U.S. priority in Colombia, where drug
traffickers typically receive more lenient sentences than they would get in
a U.S. court. Some Colombians are fearful, however, that drug traffickers
will renew terrorist attacks to stop the extraditions.