US takes on new powers to try 'drug guerrillas'

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/21/wfarc21.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/02/21/ixportal.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=87571

America yesterday named Colombia's Marxist guerrillas and Right-wing paramilitaries as international drugs trafficking groups, opening the way for their leaders to face extradition and trial in US courts.

The Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc and the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) were already designated terrorist groups.

But that meant they could face American justice, rather than Colombia's corrupt and overburdened courts, only if Americans were victims of their activities. Now the US Treasury Department has added 37 new names to its list of drug "kingpins", including the high command of both groups.

"These Kingpin Act designations reinforce the reality that the Farc and the AUC are not simply terrorist/guerrilla organisations fighting within Colombia to promote political agendas," said a Treasury spokesman. "They are part and parcel of the narcotics production and export threat to the United States, as well as Europe and other countries in Latin America."