Pubdate: Thu, 25 Aug 2005
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2005 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Kim Housego, The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

GONZALES LAUDS EXTRADITION OF COCAINE TRAFFICKERS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday 
hailed an extradition pact that has sent hundreds of Colombians to the 
United States for trial, saying that no drug trafficker is beyond the reach 
of U.S. justice.

Gonzales, in the first visit in five years by the top U.S. law enforcement 
official, said extradition was critical in combating drug trafficking and 
the outlawed armed groups that control the trade.

"The extradition relationship that we have in Colombia is the very best in 
the world," Gonzales said at a joint news conference with his Colombian 
counterpart, Mario Iguaran.

President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's staunchest ally in Latin America, has 
extradited about 350 Colombians to face U.S. justice, including the 
co-founders of the Cali cocaine cartel and two leftist rebel leaders, since 
he came to office in 2002.

The majority of them had been indicted in U.S. courts on drug, money- 
laundering and conspiracy charges, but some cases also involved murder and 
kidnapping.

Uribe's predecessors extradited about 50 suspects between 1992 and 2000, 
according to figures from the Colombian attorney general's office.

Gonzales' visit to Bogota came after Colombian Supreme Court justices 
expressed concern that U.S. authorities were sometimes failing to respect 
the terms of the bilateral extradition treaty, under which U.S. prosecutors 
agree not to seek a tougher punishment than what the suspects would have 
faced had they been tried in Colombia.
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