Cali cocaine kingpin flown to U.S. cell

[Judi Lynn]

Cali cocaine kingpin flown to U.S. cell

By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
Posted December 4 2004

Cali cartel founder Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was flown from Colombia overnight in a U.S. government plane to stand trial in Miami, said elated prosecutors who have reeled in their biggest fish -- the world's most prolific cocaine trafficker.

Rodriguez Orejuela, 65, and his brother Miguel, 61, used bribes, bullets and business acumen to build an organization that dominated the cocaine trade, authorities said. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and what is now Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been investigating the brothers for 14 years, and prosecutors have been trying since 1996 to persuade the Colombian government to extradite them.
(snip)

"Today Gilberto is under arrest in the United States, where he ranks as arguably the highest-level drug trafficking figure ever to occupy a U.S. prison cell," said Marcos Daniel Jiménez, U.S. attorney for South Florida. He called the kingpin's arrival "a watershed moment in our nation's war on drugs."
(snip)

Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Bardfeld, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, put the case together along with ICE agent Ed Kacerosky, who has been investigating the Cali cartel since cocaine concealed in frozen broccoli, mahogany planks and cement posts began turning up at the Port of Miami in 1991. Because some of the cocaine was stashed in concrete cornerstones, the inquiry became known as Operation Cornerstone. It already has resulted in about 100 convictions.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-ccali04dec04,0,5217949.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines


Extradited
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, head of the Cali drug cartel, is escorted at the narcotic-police airport in Bogota, before being handed over to the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), and boarded in a plane bound for the United States.
(AFP/Luis Acosta)

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Guest Opinion: Take Colombia to task for trade union murders

JEFF VOGT
Tucson Citizen

(snip)
But Colombia demands real attention by U.S. negotiators. There, thousands of trade unionists who exercised their labor rights have been murdered, tortured or forced into exile by state security forces and paramilitary groups.

Since 1992, at least 2,028 trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia, reports the National Labor School, in Medellin.

In the first eight months of this year, 47 trade unionists were murdered, and 276 were threatened with death. The government of Colombia has failed to prosecute and convict more than a handful of the perpetrators, or to take effective measures to prevent these crimes.

On Aug. 5, three trade unionists were murdered in the war-torn, eastern province of Arauca. Although the government initially claimed the victims were armed collaborators of a guerrilla organization in Arauca, witnesses reported that Colombian armed forces members executed the men as they knelt on the ground.
(snip)

This occurred even as the government had been ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the Organization of American States, to ensure the safety of two of these victims.
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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=opinion&story_id=120304b5_guestalabor



_Bush's buddy Álvaro Uribe:

In Colombia, the government continues to habitually refer to human rights organisations as terrorist groups. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe releases a statement every month equating the government's human rights critics with terrorists, according to Hicks.
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http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd_global/hrd_global_02.htm

[orpupilofnature57]

1. once again,protect the wolves,on the street he'd be dead,policy?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Right! And, as you can see, it's no small matter that he is of European

descent! You can't overlook his imagined superiority!

Last Updated: Saturday, 4 December, 2004, 09:27 GMT



Profile: Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, once one of the world's most powerful criminals, has been extradited to the US to face drug smuggling and money-laundering charges.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela - together with his younger brother Miguel - led the Cali drugs cartel, at its height believed to be responsible for 80% of the global cocaine trade.

He earned his nickname, the Chess Player, for his ability to stay ahead of his rivals and outwit the authorities.

But his luck ran out in 1995, when police swooped on his luxury apartment in Cali and reportedly found him crouching in a wardrobe.

At the time, extradition was banned in Colombia and Rodriguez Orejuela probably believed he would serve his time and then walk free.

In fact, freedom came earlier than expected when a Colombian judge decided to release him in 2002 for good behaviour. This provoked outrage in Colombia and the authorities re-arrested him four months later on new drug trafficking charges.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2417847.stm