COURT SAYS SUSPECT'S ADMISSIONS IN COLOMBIA CAN BE USED HERE

In a decision sought by the United States government, a federal appeals
court in Manhattan has ruled that statements by a drug trafficking suspect
to the Colombian authorities during unsuccessful plea negotiations may be
used against him in a United States court, where he will face trial soon.

The suspect, Alberto Orlandez-Gamboa, has been described by the Federal
Drug Enforcement Administration as one of Colombia's "most powerful and
ruthless" drug traffickers and was the first Colombian extradited to the
United States since 1997, when Colombia ended its ban on extraditions.

He faces charges of conspiring to import thousands of pounds of cocaine
into the United States and to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds.

In 1999, as the American government was seeking his extradition, Mr.
Orlandez-Gamboa began making admissions to the Colombian authorities about
his drug activities in the hope of reaching a deal that would have allowed
him to avoid extradition and be prosecuted in Colombia. Traffickers
traditionally have received more lenient treatment there.

No deal was reached, and after Mr. Orlandez-Gamboa was extradited in 2000,
federal prosecutors in Manhattan sought to use his statements against him,
a step that the appeals court has now approved.

"I think it's a grossly unfair result in which Mr. Gamboa's exercising of
his rights under Colombian law has been turned on its head by the American
courts," Michael S. Ross, one of his lawyers, said this week.

Mr. Orlandez-Gamboa is charged with leading an organization based in the
coastal city of Barranquilla that shipped cocaine to Europe, Central
America and the United States, where it went to New York, Miami and
Philadelphia.

The ruling was handed down on Feb. 20 by a three-judge panel of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

A spokesman for James B. Comey, the United States attorney in Manhattan,
had no comment. His office had argued that Mr. Orlandez-Gamboa's statements
were made voluntarily to the Colombian authorities and were not covered by
the rules of evidence used in American courts.

Those rules bar prosecutors from introducing statements made by a defendant
during unsuccessful plea negotiations before trial. The rules are intended
to promote candid discussion between defendants and prosecutors, "without
which plea bargaining cannot be successful," the court said.

But the appeals decision, written by Judge Guido Calabresi, held that the
rules do not apply to statements made to the authorities in other countries
and thus may be used by the prosecutors in Mr. Orlandez-Gamboa's trial in
Federal District Court in Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Orlandez-Gamboa gave detailed and incriminating accounts of his drug
activities, court records suggest. In his dealings with one associate, he
said: "I would give him 300 or 400 kilos of drugs and his job was to sell
it and to send me the money. At the end he owed me almost $400 million."

In shipping by boat and plane, the indictment against Mr. Orlandez-Gamboa
says, his organization packaged drugs in boxes containing sawdust, mustard,
and cough medicine to suppress the odor of the drugs. Cocaine was also
concealed in crates containing corn oil and engine parts, in shipments of
cement, and, in some cases, inside ceramic tiles.