Pubdate: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 Source: Bradenton Herald (FL) Copyright: 2005 Bradenton Herald Contact: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58 Author: Curt Anderson, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) REPUTED CALI CARTEL KINGPIN MAKES FIRST U.S. COURT APPEARANCE MIAMI - One half of a team of brothers alleged to have run Colombia's notorious Cali cocaine smuggling cartel appeared Monday in a federal courtroom to face U.S. charges that were 14 years in the making. Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, 61, was ordered held without bond after waiving his right to a bond hearing. He and his older brother, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, 66, will be formally arraigned March 28. Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela appeared in court dressed in a light olive- green jail jumpsuit and shackled with handcuffs to another prisoner. He listened to the proceedings through headphones that provided a Spanish translation, but he did not speak. Security for the hearing was tight, with extra U.S. marshals keeping watch and access to the courtroom limited to a few people. Prosecutors refused comment after the hearing. Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela was flown to the United States on Friday after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe rejected his final appeal against extradition. His older brother was extradited three months ago on the same indictment. Investigators blame the Cali cartel founded by the brothers and others for more than 250 tons of highly sophisticated smuggling missions that hid cocaine in everything from hollowed-out lumber to chlorine cylinders, frozen broccoli and okra. Prosecutors say the brothers kept control of their drug empire after they were convicted and imprisoned in Colombia in 1995. The brothers cannot be prosecuted for any crimes committed before the United States and Colombia renewed an extradition treaty in 1997 even though their drug empire stretches back to the 1970s. The lengthy Cali investigation was begun in 1991 by U.S. Customs agents after a drug-sniffing dog found a shipment of cocaine at Miami's port that was hidden inside concrete posts. To date, more than 100 members of the Cali cartel have been convicted and more than 50 tons of cocaine and $15 million in U.S. currency seized, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Miguel is known as "The Master" for his ability to devise new ways of hiding drugs. Gilberto, nicknamed "The Chess Player," is seen as the strategic thinker behind the family's financial empire, anchored by the seized 400-store discount drugstore chain Drogas La Rebaja. The brothers and 10 others face a four-count indictment issued by a grand jury in Miami in 2003 that covers all the drug-smuggling bases and carries possible life sentences. The charges are a smuggling conspiracy, a drug distribution conspiracy, money-laundering plots and obstruction plots including hits. They also face a separate money-laundering conspiracy indictment in New York. The brothers have the notorious honor of being "specially designated narcotics traffickers," subjecting their families and businesses to embargo-style sanctions by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control. U.S. bank accounts tied to the family have been frozen, and U.S. businesses are barred from doing business with anything tied to the cartel. Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela has been prevented from hiring his own trial attorney by the U.S. government, which contends that any payment he could make would be illegal drug proceeds. Miami attorney Jose Quinon was temporarily representing both men. Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, has extradited about 200 suspected drug traffickers to the United States under Uribe, a close Washington ally. The most prominent before the brothers was former Medellin cartel kingpin Fabio Ochoa, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth