DRUG SUSPECT SET FREE

CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuela has freed a Dominican drug suspect
identified by Washington as a priority drug-trafficking target,
saying U.S. authorities would not agree to its terms for his extradition.

Judge Hector Coronado Flores dismissed a previous court order to
extradite Mateo Holguin Ovalle and ruled that he be released, the
Supreme Court said Monday in a statement on its website.

The decision derails a case cited earlier by U.S. officials as a
prime example of cooperation with Venezuela in the drug war. But the
two countries are now locked in a dispute over how to resume joint
countertrafficking efforts paralyzed since last year.

In February 2004, the court had authorized Holguin Ovalle to be
handed over to U.S. authorities on condition they guarantee that he
would not be sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.

Venezuela's constitution prohibits the extradition of drug suspects
if they could be sentenced to death or more than 30 years in jail.

"Since the term of punishment to be imposed on Mateo Juan Holguin
Ovalle could not be guaranteed, the extradition ordered cannot be
carried out," Coronado Flores said in his ruling. Court officials
confirmed that the Dominican had been freed, though they said they
did not know the date of his release.