COLOMBIAN HEROIN SUSPECT SENT TO U.S.

BOGOTA - The suspected head of a heroin smuggling mob was bundled
aboard a U.S. plane in Bogota amid tight security yesterday to become
the first Colombian extradited to stand trial in the United States in
nine years.

Jaime Orlando Lara Nausa, arrested in Bogota late last year, was
whisked by helicopter from a police barracks in the south of the
capital to the police airport.

Colombia banned the extradition of its citizens in 1991 after Pablo
Escobar, the late kingpin of the notorious Medellin drug cartel, waged
a bloody campaign of bombings, kidnappings and murders.

But the Colombian Congress lifted the ban in December, 1997, after
intense U.S. pressure, which included blacklisting Colombia for
failing to co-operate in the international fight against drug
trafficking.

"The national government took the decision to authorize the
extradition of Colombian citizen Jaime Orlando Lara Nausa. In
accordance with that decision, we have today transferred that person
to the United States," senior police commander Gen. Ismael Trujillo
told reporters minutes after Lara's departure.

In a statement, White House anti-drug leader Barry McCaffrey said:
"Actions such as today's extradition to confront the traffickers will
send a powerful and helpful signal."

Lara was led to a waiting U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
aircraft. It landed briefly in Miami and "continued to New York, which
is where he is wanted," DEA spokesperson Brent Eaton said in Miami.