COLOMBIA NABS ALLEGED HEROIN SMUGGLER, MAY SEND HIM TO U.S.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Police on Monday announced the capture of a man they
called a major heroin smuggler, and said he may become the first Colombian
in nearly a decade to be sent to stand trial in the United States.

Police arrested Jaime "Jimmy" Lara Nausa, 29, in northern Bogota Saturday
night as he drove a Ford Explorer. Authorities said Lara's trafficking
group smuggled an average of 22 to 33 pounds of heroin to the United States
each week, much of it through Miami.

Lara could be sent to stand trial in a U.S. court, since Colombian
legislators last year removed a constitutional ban against extradition that
had been in effect since 1991.

Drug lords fearful of extradition to the United States bloodied Colombia
with a terror campaign of bombings and killings in the 1980s that left at
least 3,000 dead. The last extradition occurred in 1989.

National Police Chief Rosso Jose Serrano said that legal details may halt
Lara's extradition for up to 60 days, but that U.S. courts would eventually
try him.

"The proof is overwhelming," Serrano said. "The DEA has all the evidence.
They have video. They know how he smuggled heroin into the United States."

Lara barely avoided arrest in early July in New York City when U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents launched Operation Trinity, a major
raid against narcotics organizations, police said. A week later, Lara
slipped into Colombia.

Federal prosecutors in New York City indicted Lara on Oct. 22, accusing him
of conspiracy to import heroin and possession with intent to distribute.

Already the world's principal source of cocaine, Colombia in 1995 became
the largest source of heroin for the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, the DEA says.
Much of the heroin is packed into capsules, swallowed by human "mules" and
smuggled aboard commercial airlines bound for the United States.

Police said Lara was a lieutenant to Alberto "The Snail" Gamboa before
Gamboa was captured June 13 and identified as the head of a major crime
group in the northern city of Barranquilla.

"When `Snail' was captured, this guy started taking over the business more
directly," a police source said.

Lara worked closely with Dominican and Mexican traffickers, he added.

In another arrest, police captured the alleged owner of 7.2 tons of cocaine
seized Dec. 4 in Cartagena aboard shipping containers bound for Cuba.

Police described Cristobal Galeano Murcia, 39, as a major trafficker based
in the coca-growing eastern plains who got his start in the drug trade
under Carlos Lehder, a Medellin Cartel kingpin who is serving a life
sentence in a U.S. prison.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski