DRUG CZAR FLOWN TO U.S.

Extradition: Colombia's Orejuela Arrives In Miami

MIAMI -- Colombian drug kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was flown
to the U.S. early yesterday aboard an American government plane,
becoming the most powerful Colombian trafficker ever extradited to
face U.S. justice.

Rodriguez Orejuela faces trial in federal courts in Miami and New York
for plots to smuggle cocaine and to launder money.

He arrived before dawn and was sent to a downtown jail, across the
street from a courthouse where he was scheduled to make his initial
appearance tomorrow, said a Drug Enforcement Administration official.

Wearing handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, the leader of the
once-feared Cali cartel was escorted Friday night to the plane at a
military airfield on the edge of the Colombian capital of Bogota.
Colombian soldiers and police brandishing rifles guarded a convoy that
sped the kingpin from La Picota prison to the airfield.

Top U.S. and Colombian authorities hailed the extradition.

"Every day, judicial co-operation between our two countries is
becoming more effective and more visible," Col. Oscar Naranjo, chief
of Colombia's Judicial Police, said. "This means that the criminals
will not find any sanctuary to evade justice."

U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft said: "Those who violate federal
drug laws should never believe that drug trafficking from outside our
borders puts them beyond the reach of justice . . . Rodriguez Orejuela
will now stand trial for his actions."

Nicknamed the Chess Player for his shrewdness, Rodriguez Orejuela and
his brother, Miguel, founded and headed the notorious Cali cartel. In
the '90s, the cartel controlled 80 per cent of the world's cocaine
trade, earning $8 billion US in annual profits, the DEA has said.

Michael Garcia, an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, said Rodriguez Orejuela will be "arguably the
highest-level drug trafficking figure to ever occupy a U.S. prison
cell."

The extradition of Rodriguez Orejuela caps a 13-year investigation by
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Dean Boyd, a spokesman
in Washington for the agency.

"ICE agents spent nearly 100,000 investigative case hours on this
investigation since they launched it in 1991," Boyd said.

However, it was for crimes Rodriguez Orejuela allegedly committed from
a Colombian prison from 1999 to '02 that led to the extradition.
According to Colombian law, persons accused of trafficking drugs
before December 1997 are not subject to extradition.