Pubdate: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191 Fax: (619) 293-1440 Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Will Weissert, Associated Press COLOMBIA IGNORES THREATS, SENDS ALLEGED DRUG CARTEL BOSS TO U.S. BOGOTA, Colombia -- The alleged leader of one of Colombia's most powerful drug cartels was sent yesterday to the United States to stand trial, days after drug dealers threatened violence if authorities carried out the extradition. A small army of security forces escorted Alberto Orlandez Gamboa onto the Drug Enforcement Administration's plane at Bogota's international airport, said President Andres Pastrana, speaking from Medelln. Gamboa faces charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that he conspired to import and distribute thousands of pounds of cocaine from Colombia to the United States. Gamboa, who U.S. authorities say is the head of an international drug-trafficking and money-laundering organization headquartered in Barranquilla, is also accused of smuggling cocaine to Europe and conspiring to launder millions of dollars in drug profits. After a 10-year moratorium on U.S. extradition, Gamboa becomes the third Colombian whom Pastrana has spirited to the United States to face drug charges in nine months. Pastrana favors extraditing accused drug traffickers to the United States, where stiffer penalties often await them. Gamboa's extradition comes three days after a newspaper ad paid for by a band of drug dealers known as the Our Country Movement threatened to assassinate supreme court judges and government officials unless authorities here reversed their decision. Meanwhile, the U.S. government added two Colombians to its list of 524 individuals and companies suspected of drug trafficking and banned from doing business in this country. The two, Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya and Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, are responsible for huge volumes of drugs that have entered the United States, the Treasury Department said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D