'FATSO' MAY BE BIG BREAK AGAINST CALI DRUG BOSSES

BOGOTA, Colombia - After years of failed efforts to extradite the leaders
of one of history's most powerful drug mafias to the United States for
trial, U.S. prosecutors may have finally gotten the break they needed.

The arrest in Bogota last week of a Venezuelan nicknamed "Fatso" could be a
big problem for Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, the Cali cartel
chiefs captured in 1995.

If, as expected, he is extradited or expelled to the United States, the
alleged longtime cartel associate could provide the testimony needed to get
the Rodriguez brothers into a U.S. courtroom, where they would face life
terms.

Extraditions formerly forbidden

U.S. authorities consider Colombia's dismantling of the Cali cartel one of
the greatest strikes ever against organized crime. But extraditing cartel
bosses was forbidden by Colombia's 1991 constitution.

Congress lifted that ban late last year, but in an apparent bow to
traffickers' threats and payoffs, it allowed extradition only for crimes
committed after December 1997.

The measure virtually guaranteed that the Rodriguez brothers would remain
in Colombia, provided they didn't violate U.S. laws again. Now it appears
they may have.

During the past three months, police say, 308-pound Fernando Jose Flores
visited the Rodriguez brothers 17 times at La Picota prison. What the men
discussed, if police indeed know, has not been made public.

But the mere fact that they had contacts with the 37-year-old Venezuelan,
who was carrying false documents when arrested, has raised intense
speculation that the Cali kingpins have continued to traffic in cocaine
from prison, a longtime contention of U.S. officials.

The arrest apparently put the Rodriguez brothers on edge. In a letter sent
to Semana magazine, which reported that Flores owed the two money, the
brothers admitted to the Venezuelan's visits but said he was just a friend.

If Flores was trafficking in drugs at the time "it was on his own behalf
and without any conniving by us," the brothers wrote, insisting they had
put their "sordid past behind."

Brothers already doing time

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents who tracked Flores and asked
Colombian police to arrest him refused to discuss the case. But other U.S.
officials said they would seek his extradition.

The Americans do not want Flores expelled to Venezuela, because that
country does not extradite its own citizens for trial abroad.

Flores is under U.S. indictment for allegedly helping the Cali cartel ship
nearly eight tons of cocaine to Florida in 1991, hiding it in concrete
posts and moving it through a Venezuelan front company.

If Flores' capture does eventually lead to extradition for the Rodriguez
brothers, the process is bound to be lengthy.

The first step for prosecutors is to get Flores to the United States -
where he faces life in prison if convicted - and see if he accepts a plea
bargain and implicates his associates.

Colombian drug cartels have a long history of murdering turncoats - or
their families - and the Venezuelan is being held under heavy guard at a
Bogota police station.

Under Colombian law, the Rodriguez brothers could only be sent to the
United States after they finish serving 22- and 10-year Colombian
sentences. With good behavior, both men could be free much sooner.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson