ACCUSED COCAINE KINGPIN IN COURT

The 65-Year-Old Colombian Will Stay In Jail For Now, Awaiting His Trial

MIAMI -- Stooped and shackled, a pudgy white-haired Colombian stood before
a federal magistrate on Monday, accused of being the biggest cocaine
trafficker in the world.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela's first U.S. court appearance opened the final
chapter in a historic drug and money laundering case nearly 14 years in the
making.

"It simply does not get any bigger than this," Marcos Daniel Jimenez, U.S.
attorney for South Florida, told reporters at a news conference afterward.
The Cali cartel supplied about 80 percent of the world's cocaine during the
1990s, he said.

Rodriguez Orejuela, 65, dubbed "the Chess Player" for his shrewdness, is
accused of conspiracies to import cocaine into the United States and
launder billions of dollars. The accused kingpin is expected to plead not
guilty on Dec. 27. He will remain behind bars for now.

A federal grand jury indictment handed up in February seeks the forfeiture
of $2.1 billion in drug assets.

Defense attorney Jose Quinon said he will dispute the government's chief
assertion -- that Rodriguez Orejuela and his younger brother, Miguel, 61,
continued to run the cartel from their Colombian jail cells after their
arrests in 1995.

The charges carry a maximum life prison sentence.

John Clark, deputy secretary of the immigration agency, said the evidence
used to obtain Rodriguez Orejuela's extradition grew from an investigation
dubbed "Operation Cornerstone" that resulted in 100 convictions. Some of
the convicted cartel members will testify against their former leaders.

After the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers were imprisoned, some 300 "baby
cartels" took over as Colombia's biggest cocaine suppliers. Still, U.S.
authorities allege, the Cali cartel stayed in business by pooling resources
with other jailed traffickers.

Evidence against the cartel leaders includes hundreds of hours of recorded
phone conversations as well as testimony from key insiders, including the
cartel's former accountant, security chief, and the one- time head of its
Miami operations.