Source: Associated Press; 4/18/97 Cocaine Fugitive Nailed in Venezuela By ED McCULLOUGH CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) A man alleged to be a top cocaine trafficker was flown to this capital city Friday for possible extradition to Colombia or the United States. Justo Pastor Perafan was arrested Thursday night as he got into a car at a shopping center in the town of San Cristobal, National Guard Gen. Gerardo Briceno Garcia told reporters at the scene. San Cristobal is on the Colombian border, 465 miles west of Caracas, The news was immediately hailed by Colombia's president. ``With this arrest, we can say that all the heavyweights of drug trafficking that existed three years ago have now been brought to justice,'' Ernesto Samper said in Bogota. Samper asked Venezuela to extradite Perafan, a Colombian, to Colombia. But charges are also pending against him in New York, and U.S. Justice Department spokesman John Russell said in Washington that the United States would also seek extradition. It was not immediately clear what U.S. charges Perafan might face. Embassy officials in Bogota and Caracas declined to comment. Perafan, 51, is wanted in Colombia on charges of illegal enrichment and falsifying documents, a spokeswoman said at the chief prosecutor's office in Bogota. Venezuelan military police were holding Perafan on charges of carrying false identity papers and being in the country illegally. Handcuffed, he stepped off a military plane at Caracas' downtown airport Friday afternoon with a National Guard commando at each side. About 100 soldiers backed up by armored vehicles patrolled the airport entrances. At a news conference in San Cristobal, Gen. Briceno said identifying Perafan was difficult because he apparently underwent cosmetic surgery. ``His physical appearance very little resembles the image that Colombian police gave out,'' he said. Perafan was captured on a tip by an informant who may have earned a posted $500,000 reward, said Colombia's national police chief, Gen. Rosso Jose Serranom. Identification was confirmed by fingerprints. Perafan denied the accusations. ``This is most unfair because I'm not a drug trafficker nor have I ever been one,'' he told reporters at San Cristobal police headquarters Friday morning. ``I'm wanted for alleged illegal enrichment and there's nothing that indicates I'm a drug trafficker.'' After a long stint in the army, the former sergeant went into business and made a fortune. He claims it was from coffee and other legitimate businesses. But authorities said it came from his connections with the Cali cartel, the world's biggest supplier of cocaine. As recently as 1994, Perafan was a respected businessman with open ties to influential politicians. But in February 1996, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant and he went underground. Colombian Defense Minister Guillermo Alberto Gonzalez was forced to resign last month after disclosures that he had received campaign contributions from Perafan for his 1989 senatorial campaign. Perafan insisted Friday that the money he gave Gonzalez ``was simply what any Colombian businessman did to help a countryman in his political career.'' ``The only thing I've done is work honestly,'' Perafan added in comments broadcast by Colombia's Caracol radio station. ``I come from a humble background.'' The kingpins of the Cali drug cartel, including brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, are in Colombian jails. They were arrested in 1995.