Pubdate: Thu, 04 May 2000
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Orange County Register
Contact:  P.O. Box 11626, Santa Ana, CA 92711
Fax: (714) 565-3657
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/

COLOMBIAN SUSPECT WON'T BE EXTRADITED

Colombian attorney and anti-drug crusader Victor Tafur will not be 
extradited to his homeland to face drug-trafficking charges, a judge in 
Philadelphia ruled Wednesday.

Tafur had been sought by Colombian authorities since September on charges 
he helped finance the largest cocaine shipment ever-seized in Colombia, a 
7-ton cache intercepted in the Caribbean port of Cartagena in December 1998.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Smith, who had expressed doubts about the 
government's case from the start, said prosecutors failed to show probable 
cause.
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