COLOMBIA FREES EX-DRUG LORD DESPITE U.S. EFFORTS TO STOP IT

TUNJA, Colombia - A former drug kingpin was freed late Thursday night after
serving only half his sentence, despite U.S. effort to find evidence to
support further charges -- and possibly his extradition to the United States.

Gilberto Rodrguez Orejuela, who with his brother Miguel once controlled the
Cali drug cartel, an empire that moved multi-ton shipments of cocaine
across the globe, walked out of prison shortly after 10 p.m.

Rodrguez, who was arrested in 1995 and sentenced to prison until 2010, was
ordered released by Judge Pedro Suarez last week, for good behavior and
participation in a prison work-study program. As the government
investigated Suarez to see whether the convicted drug trafficker might have
bribed him -- a charge that Suarez has denied -- another judge upheld his
decision Thursday.

Tensions mounted throughout the day Thursday amid expectations that
Rodrguez might be freed.

Dozens of police officers and soldiers had surrounded the prison where he
was held, outside the town of Tunja 60 miles northeast of Bogota, to
prevent any violence.

With the clock ticking, U.S. officials tried to stop his release.

"Some documents have arrived from the United States that officials are
evaluating, and that could stop the release," President Alvaro Uribe's
press officer, Ricardo Galan, told the Associated Press earlier Thursday.

Details on what information was being provided were not immediately
available, but U.S. drug agents have been trying to link Rodrguez and his
jailed brother to international crimes committed after 1997, when the
Colombian Constitution was revised to allow the extradition of its citizens.

Suarez's decision last week that the Rodrguez brothers should be freed
shocked the nation, and prompted the president to intervene. But Judge Luz
Amanda Moncada ruled Thursday that Suarez's order on Gilberto Rodrguez
should stand. She also ordered an investigation of the government for
allegedly interfering in the judicial process.