Pubdate: Wed, 24 Aug 2005
Source: Ledger, The (FL)
Copyright: 2005 The Ledger
Contact:  http://www.theledger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/795
Author: Curt Anderson, The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

ALLEGED DRUG KINGPIN MAY GET PUBLIC DEFENDER

The Accused's Former Lawyer Quit, Fearing He Would Be Paid In Drug
Money

MIAMI -- The defense lawyer for alleged cocaine kingpin Gilberto
Rodriguez Orejuela withdrew from the case Monday over concerns that
the wealthy Cali cartel co-founder cannot pay legal fees without
tapping into drug money. A federal judge may now have to appoint a
lawyer for Rodriguez Orejuela at U.S. taxpayer expense.

"If he's eligible for court-appointed counsel, then I will give him
court-appointed counsel," U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said at
a hearing. "I can't have a person without a lawyer."

Moreno agreed to release Miami lawyer Jose Quinon from representing
Rodriguez Orejuela, who is accused in a federal indictment along with
his younger brother Miguel and others of conspiracy and obstruction of
justice.

Colombia's Cali cartel, once the biggest cocaine smuggling ring in the
world, allegedly made more than $2 billion in profits by smuggling an
estimated 250 tons of cocaine into the United States over two decades,
prosecutors say.

Quinon said in court papers that he did not have "sufficient comfort"
to remain a part of the case, which could have put him a risk of
prosecution if the legal fees he would have been paid turned out to
come from drug proceeds. Quinon declined comment after Monday's hearing.

Other South Florida criminal lawyers who represented drug kingpins
have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Miami lawyer Sam Burstyn, who once represented a top lieutenant to
former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, is charged in a 16-count
federal indictment with acting as a "house counsel" to drug
organizations and accepting drug money. He has pleaded innocent and is
awaiting trial.

In 1995, six lawyers were indicted by a Miami grand jury on charges of
helping the Cali cartel -- and the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers -- by
delivering hush money and sometimes threats to jailed cartel
associates. Several of those lawyers were convicted and served jail
time.

The current lawyer for Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, Roy Kahn, said the
defendants were interviewing lawyers to replace Quinon and hoped to
reach an agreement with one of them by next week. Moreno set a hearing
for Sept. 7 to decide the issue permanently and set a trial date for
Jan. 23.

Usually the poorest defendants get court-appointed lawyers, not
someone like Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela -- a man prosecutors have
said has more money than some entire countries. But Richard Gregorie,
the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, said the government
would not oppose a court-appointed lawyer if Moreno finds he has no
untainted money to pay his own lawyer.

"The government is ready to proceed," Gregorie said.

Kahn said his legal fees would be paid from a Colombia publisher
willing to give the brothers an advance to write books, which he said
is a clean source of funds. "I've resolved that issue," Kahn said.

Quinon had secured permission in April from the U.S. Treasury
Department to be paid from half of the proceeds of the sale of a house
in Bogota co-owned by Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela's wife. But
prosecutors now say all of those proceeds are in question because the
cartel's drug trafficking business started in the 1970s when the house
was purchased.

The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers were convicted of drug charges in
Colombia in 1995 but federal prosecutors say they continued to operate
their empire from prison. They were both extradited to Miami to stand
trial on U.S. charges under a treaty with Colombia that was renewed in
1997.

Both brothers have pleaded innocent to the charges.
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