JAILED KINGPIN TURNED TO COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARY LEADER FOR HELP, U.S. SAYS

MIAMI -A jailed cocaine kingpin wrote a Colombian paramilitary chief asking
for help settling a $14 million drug debt and reminding him of past support
in the form of military rifle deliveries, according to court papers released
Tuesday.

The letter offered by prosecutors going to trial next week against Fabio
Ochoa Sanchez, a leader of the defunct Medellin cartel, solidifies evidence
of ties alleged for years between top Colombian traffickers and the
country's right-wing paramilitary leaders.

Alejandro Bernal, an admitted Colombian kingpin now cooperating with U.S.
investigators, wrote the unaddressed and unsigned letter in 2000 to Carlos
Castano, indicted head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or
AUC, prosecutors said.

Castano has gone underground since his indictment in Washington in
September. But he responded on his group's Web site in March that his
paramilitary group is not a drug cartel and has ended past involvement in
drug trafficking.

Bernal pleaded guilty to drug racketeering this month and could become a
witness against Castano, who faces extradition on the indictment charging
him in a 17-ton cocaine smuggling venture starting in 1997.

His five-page letter refers to offering a Mexican commander named Enrique
Gonzalez $2 million to "settle" a problem, apparently with a DEA agent,
without harming him.

"He is only doing his job and I do not want a guilty conscience," Bernal
wrote. "I have never killed anyone or asked anyone to do it for me."

'Settle my debts'

Bernal asks Castano to intervene "to settle my debts" and suggests sources
to cover $13.5 million of a $14 million drug debt. "The remaining balance
would be paid in cash obviously," Bernal wrote.

He writes that he doesn't know Castano personally but adds, "I have been one
of your biggest collaborators for the cause that is an obligation for all
Colombians."

Bernal was charged in Miami with coordinating a 30-ton-a-month smuggling
network and was convicted of drug charges in Mexico in 1989. Ochoa is
accused of joining Bernal's smuggling venture.

Ruben Oliva, Bernal's attorney, said he was unaware of any connection
between Bernal and Castano but said it's not something he discussed with his
client. He said he was unaware of the letter but wasn't surprised that he
didn't know about it in a case with 200,000 documents.

Prosecutors and Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Joe Kilmer had no
comment on the letter filed in court to fulfill evidence-disclosure rules
for Ochoa's trial scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.

Bernal reports providing more than 1,000 pieces of equipment including
"AK-R15 and M60" sent 50 at a time from 1983 to 1996. He also refers to his
intention to send "100 AK and a few M-60 in order to keep collaborating with
you and the cause" after each 30-ton-a-month deal.

AK and AR are makes of rifles. M60s are tanks. M-16s are military assault
rifles.

The letter was written more than a year after Bernal was jailed in Colombia
in a 43-defendant drug indictment based on bugs planted in his Bogota
office. He was extradited in 2001.