Cocaine Fugitive Nailed in Venezuela

By ED McCULLOUGH

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) A man alleged to be a top cocaine trafficker was
flown to this capital city Friday for possible extradition to Colombia or the
United States.

Justo Pastor Perafan was arrested Thursday night as he got into a car at a
shopping center in the town of San Cristobal, National Guard Gen. Gerardo
Briceno Garcia told reporters at the scene. San Cristobal is on the Colombian
border, 465 miles west of Caracas,

The news was immediately hailed by Colombia's president. ``With this arrest,
we can say that all the heavyweights of drug trafficking that existed three
years ago have now been brought to justice,'' Ernesto Samper said in Bogota.

Samper asked Venezuela to extradite Perafan, a Colombian, to Colombia. But
charges are also pending against him in New York, and U.S. Justice Department
spokesman John Russell said in Washington that the United States would also
seek extradition.

It was not immediately clear what U.S. charges Perafan might face. Embassy
officials in Bogota and Caracas declined to comment.

Perafan, 51, is wanted in Colombia on charges of illegal enrichment and
falsifying documents, a spokeswoman said at the chief prosecutor's office in
Bogota.

Venezuelan military police were holding Perafan on charges of carrying false
identity papers and being in the country illegally.

Handcuffed, he stepped off a military plane at Caracas' downtown airport
Friday afternoon with a National Guard commando at each side. About 100
soldiers backed up by armored vehicles patrolled the airport entrances.

At a news conference in San Cristobal, Gen. Briceno said identifying Perafan
was difficult because he apparently underwent cosmetic surgery. ``His
physical appearance very little resembles the image that Colombian police
gave out,'' he said.

Perafan was captured on a tip by an informant who may have earned a posted
$500,000 reward, said Colombia's national police chief, Gen. Rosso Jose
Serranom. Identification was confirmed by fingerprints.

Perafan denied the accusations.

``This is most unfair because I'm not a drug trafficker nor have I ever been
one,'' he told reporters at San Cristobal police headquarters Friday morning.

``I'm wanted for alleged illegal enrichment and there's nothing that
indicates I'm a drug trafficker.''

After a long stint in the army, the former sergeant went into business and
made a fortune. He claims it was from coffee and other legitimate businesses.
But authorities said it came from his connections with the Cali cartel, the
world's biggest supplier of cocaine.

As recently as 1994, Perafan was a respected businessman with open ties to
influential politicians. But in February 1996, prosecutors issued an arrest
warrant and he went underground.

Colombian Defense Minister Guillermo Alberto Gonzalez was forced to resign
last month after disclosures that he had received campaign contributions from
Perafan for his 1989 senatorial campaign.

Perafan insisted Friday that the money he gave Gonzalez ``was simply what any
Colombian businessman did to help a countryman in his political career.''

``The only thing I've done is work honestly,'' Perafan added in comments
broadcast by Colombia's Caracol radio station. ``I come from a humble
background.''

The kingpins of the Cali drug cartel, including brothers Miguel and Gilberto
Rodriguez Orejuela, are in Colombian jails. They were arrested in 1995.