COLOMBIAN POLICE ARREST DRUG LORD'S FATHER-IN-LAW

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- The father-in-law of jailed Colombian drug
kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez
Orejuela was arrested in southwest Colombia Friday and charged with
drug-related ''illicit enrichment,'' police said.

Judicial police in the capital said Camilo Restrepo Villegas, 60, was
nabbed in Cali, the city that gave Rodriguez Orejuela's infamous drug
cartel its name.

They did not elaborate on the drug money charges against Restrepo, but
said he was nabbed in a shop called ``Plastic Ideas'' and had his case
turned over to the regional prosecutor's office.

Rodriguez Orejuela, a reputed billionaire, has been jailed in the
maximum security wing of Bogota's La Picota prison since 1995. His
younger brothers Miguel and Jorge Eliecer are also behind bars along
with a sister, Rafaela, and one brother-in-law.

The Cali cartel once controlled up to 80 percent of the world's
cocaine and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, popularly known as ``The
Chessplayer,'' was its undisputed mastermind.

Separately, judicial sources said Friday that a so-called ''faceless''
judge in Cali had decided to stiffen the prison sentence given in May
1997 to Helmer ``El Pacho'' Herrera, one of the Cali cartel's top henchmen.

Herrera, who is wanted by the U.S. Justice Department and surrendered
to Colombian police in September 1996, had initially been sentenced to
six years and eight months in prison -- after he confessed to shipping
nearly 7,430 pounds of cocaine to the United States.

But the Cali judge, whose identity is being kept secret because of
possible reprisals, upped Herrera's prison time to 14 years and eight
months on appeal from the chief prosecutor's office.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady