NINE SUSPECTED COLOMBIAN DRUG CARTEL LEADERS INDICTED

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Thursday the
indictment of nine people believed to be the top leaders of Colombia's
largest drug cartel allegedly responsible for smuggling half of all
the cocaine that enters the United States in recent years.

The racketeering and smuggling charges against the alleged leaders of
the so-called Norte de Valle cartel, coupled with a U.S.-Colombian
manhunt for them, will cripple the cartel's drug-smuggling activities,
Ashcroft and drug enforcement officials said.

"We are disabling the single largest source of cocaine to the United
States," Ashcroft said after the indictment was unsealed in
Washington. He conceded, however, that some of the ringleaders "will
be difficult to apprehend." Only one of the nine indicted is in custody.

According to the indictment, the Colombian cartel has exported more
than 1.2 million pounds of cocaine since 1990, mainly from Colombia's
Pacific coast through Mexico into the United States. The cocaine was
worth about $10 billion, "roughly equivalent to the combined budgets
of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Prisons,"
said Karen Tandy, head of the DEA.

A key target of the U.S.-Colombian manhunt is Diego Leon Montoya
Sanchez, alias "Don Diego." He's on the FBI's 10 most wanted list with
a reward of up to $5 million for his capture. Last month, Colombian
police raided Montoya's ranches and homes and seized an estimated
$76.3 million in property.

Since the 1990s, when Colombia's Cali and Medellin cartels were broken
up, the Norte de Valle cartel has used brutality, bribery and an
alliance with a violent Colombian paramilitary group to consolidate
its power, the indictment says.

The paramilitary group, called Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia,
protected the cartel's drug routes from western Colombia, according to
the indictment. Separately, Norte de Valle leaders tried to bribe
legislators to block the extradition of drug suspects to the United
States and wiretapped U.S. and Colombian law enforcement and rival
cartels, according to the indictment.

The State Department is offering rewards of up to $5 million for each
of the nine alleged cartel leaders, said Assistant Secretary Bobby
Charles.

Combined with the threat of death or extradition, the rewards should
disrupt the organization, several officials said. Charles said the
indictments would also help Colombia's pro-Washington president,
Alvaro Uribe, in his efforts to disband paramilitary groups.

"Today we have ripped out the foundation of the largest and most
powerful drug cartel in Colombia," said Tandy. "Like the Medellin and
Cali cartels before them, their time has run out."

So far, Colombian law enforcement efforts have confiscated $200
million of cartel property, and that has "really impaired them
financially," Tandy said.

Indicted with Montoya were Wilber or Wilbur Varela, Luis Hernando
Gomez-Bustamante, Arcangel Henao-Montoya, Juan Carlos Ramirez-Abadia
and Carlos Alberto Renteria-Mantilla. Henao-Montoya was captured in
Panama in January.

Also indicted were Jorge Orlando Rodriguez-Acero, a former Colombian
National Police lieutenant; Gabriel Puerta-Parra, an attorney; and
Jairo Aparacio-Lenis, who's accused of money laundering.

The case against the alleged cartel leaders developed from a
money-laundering investigation in New York and Miami. After a 1997
raid of wire-transfer storefronts in Queens, N.Y., FBI, customs and
IRS agents began to track huge sums of money sent to Colombia.

The massive money transfer "ranged from the unsophisticated - money
stuffed into duffel bags - to more elaborate mechanisms, including the
black market peso exchange," said IRS Commissioner Mark Everson.

Charles said that last year Colombia extradited 67 nationals who face
drug charges, and that putting Montoya on the FBI most wanted list
will turn up the pressure on the cartel.

Joseph Lewis, acting assistant director of the FBI, said that 448 of
the 478 most wanted fugitives have been captured over the years.
Listing Montoya "will make it very difficult for him to travel," Lewis
said.