COLOMBIAN DRUG LORD ARRESTED

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A leader of the once-powerful Medellin cartel was among
30 people arrested yesterday and slated for extradition to the United
States in what authorities described as the biggest blow to Colombian drug
trafficking since 1995.

In a separate, unrelated operation, U.S. drug officials in Puerto Rico
announced the arrests of 1,290 lower-level trafficking suspects in 15
countries and the seizure of more than two dozen drug-running boats in a
two-week operation, mostly in the Caribbean.

Former Medellin cartel leader Fabio Ochoa, 42, was the best-known suspect
seized in Colombia in pre-dawn raids that officials said crippled the
heir-apparent to the Medellin and Cali cartels, Colombia's main drug mafias
throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

The successor ring smuggled up to 30 tons of cocaine a month into Mexico
for distribution throughout the United States -- using transit countries
including Ecuador and Chile -- and also shipped the drugs to Europe,
according to Colombian and U.S. officials.

Past law enforcement crackdowns have failed to stem the flow of drugs from
Colombia, where leftist rebels are increasingly involved in protecting
cocaine and heroin production. This poor Andean nation has a rich tradition
of criminal enterprise, and it was unclear how much of a dent the arrests
would make in the international drug trade.

New smuggling organizations have traditionally emerged to take over the
business of jailed drug bosses.

Nevertheless, Attorney General Janet Reno yesterday said she was encouraged
by the arrests.

The ring allegedly was organized by 40-year-old Alejandro Bernal Madrigal
of Bogota, who officials said pulled together remnants of the Medellin and
other drug gangs and personally established smuggling routes through
Mexican organizations.

Bernal's chief link in Mexico, Armando Valencia, was among 43
co-conspirators named in an indictment unsealed yesterday in Miami that
specified drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering charges.
Valencia is still at large.

Colombia's police director, Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, told reporters in
Bogota that his officers had worked "shoulder-to-shoulder" for more than a
year with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and CIA in the sting,
dubbed Operation Millennium.