Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jan 2006
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2006 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Vanessa Blum, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

ALLEGED LEADERS OF CALI COCAINE CARTEL PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN MIAMI

MIAMI   William Rodriguez Abadia, alleged to be the leader of the
violent Cali cocaine cartel, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges
of conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and obstruction of
justice.

The 40-year-old son of indicted Colombian drug suspect Miguel
Rodriguez Orejuela voluntarily surrendered Monday to U.S. authorities
in Panama. He was then flown to Miami.

Rodriguez Abadia's U.S. defense lawyer, Humberto Dominguez, said his
client was tired of living as a fugitive but did not want to turn
himself in to law enforcement officials in Colombia, where he could
have been imprisoned for months awaiting extradition to the United
States.

At Wednesday's hearing, the Colombian national agreed to be held in
the Miami Federal Detention Center until his trial in
September.Prosecutors accuse Rodriguez Abadia of running day-to-day
operations for the Cali cartel after the 1995 arrests of his father
Miguel and uncle, Gilberto Rodriguez Orehuela, in Colombia.

According to the government's case, Rodriguez Abadia, an attorney by
training, stepped in after the arrests to coordinate the
organization's massive drug shipments, oversee its finances, and run
its money laundering operations.

Rodriguez Abadia's father and uncle were extradited to the United
States in 2004 and 2005 and face charges in the same conspiracy.

At the height of its reign, federal authorities say the brothers
pulled in $7 billion a year and supplied 80 percent of the world's
cocaine.

The cartel developed innovative ways to smuggle the drug, hiding it in
concrete posts, frozen vegetables, coffee and lumber, among other
things. It also pioneered sophisticated ways to launder drug money,
using businesses that appeared legitimate. 
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