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Colombian Drug Boss Extradited to U.S.
Colombian drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa was delivered to the United States on Saturday to face charges that he belonged to a gang that smuggled in 30 tons of cocaine a month.
Ochoa, a former top leader of the notorious Medellin cartel, is the highest-profile Colombian sent to face charges in the United States since Colombia revived extraditions in 1997.
Despite years of U.S.-backed drug-fighting efforts, Colombia remains the world's leading cocaine exporting nation and an increasingly important source of the heroin sold in this country.
The State Department warned Americans in Colombia to take extra security precautions, noting "the past history of narcotics traffickers conducting bombings in public areas as a reprisal for or deterrent to extradition."
Ochoa fought extradition peacefully with legal appeals and an Internet page outlining his defense, and by erecting billboards in Bogota and Medellin proclaiming: "Yesterday I made a mistake. Today I am innocent."
That struggle ended Friday, when he was put on a DEA plane in Bogota after a Colombian judge lifted an order he had granted earlier suspending the handover.
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