Pubdate: Sun, 05 Dec 2004
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2004 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398
Author: Dan Molinski, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/colombia.htm (Colombia)

EXTRADITED COLOMBIAN DRUG KINGPIN SAYS HE'S INNOCENT OF CHARGES

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, the most powerful
Colombian drug trafficker ever extradited to the United States, said
he was innocent in an interview shortly before he was flown to Miami.

"I feel innocent of the charges they are making against me and I will
respond to them," he told the radio station W. Excerpts were published
Sunday by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

Rodriguez Orejuela, 65, is charged along with his brother Miguel with
running a drug network that produced 80 percent of the U.S. cocaine
supply in the 1990s.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela faces his first court appearance Monday
after he was flown to Miami on Saturday. The drug cartel leader said
he has confidence in the U.S. justice system.

"I think I will be listened to and that if my life is going to be in a
prison it will be in a prison where at least I'll have minimal
rights," he said. The date of the interview was not given. An extended
version of the interview will be aired Monday on the W radio station,
which is part of the Caracol Radio chain.

Charges against Rodriguez Orejuela carry a possible life sentence, but
restrictions in Colombian law may limit any prison term.

While Rodriguez Orejuela has admitted past drug trafficking, his
extradition was based on U.S. allegations of crimes committed from his
Colombian prison from 1999 to 2002. According to Colombian law, people
cannot be extradited for crimes committed before December 1997.

Rodriguez Orejuela has maintained in previous interviews that he never
trafficked drugs from jail.

The drug cartel leader said he has confidence in the American justice
system.

"I think I will be listened to and that if my life is going to be in a
prison, it will be in a prison where at least I'll have minimal
rights," he said. The date of the interview was not given.

Charges against Rodriguez Orejuela carry a possible life sentence, but
restrictions in Colombian law may limit any prison term.

When asked about the Cali cartel's donation of million of dollars to
former President Ernesto Samper's victorious 1994 campaign, Rodriguez
Orejuela said, "Look, I'm going to take everything I can recall to the
United States."

Samper claims not to have been aware of the campaign
donations.

Rodriguez Orejuela also said he tried several times to negotiate a
surrender with Colombian authorities after the godfather of Colombian
traffickers, Pablo Escobar, was killed by counternarcotics agents in
December 1993.

"I sent three letters to (then-President Cesar) Gaviria starting on
the day Pablo Escobar was killed with the intent to turn myself in,"
Rodriguez Orejuela said.

Gaviria never responded, said Rodriguez Orejuela, who was captured in
June 1995.

Gaviria was not immediately available for comment.

Rodriguez Orejuela and brother Miguel have been jailed since 1995.
Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela remains there, where U.S. authorities say he
might stay because of health problems requiring dialysis.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was handed over to U.S. authorities by
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who has approved the extradition of
more than 200 Colombians in the last two years and is considered
Washington's strongest ally in Latin America.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin