(22 Nov 1999) Natural Sound
A man accused of smuggling heroin into the United States has been extradited from Columbia - the first time in nearly a decade that Colombia has turned over one of its nationals to stand trial in the U-S.
Jaime Orlando Lara arrived aboard a government plane and was turned over to officials from the U-S Drug Enforcement Administration (D-E-A).
The handover comes 10 days after a terrorist bomb killed eight people in
Bogota, in what many suspect was an underworld warning against extraditions.
30 year old Jaime Orlando Lara left Bogota on a government plane - arriving in New York on Monday to stand trial for heroin trafficking.
Lara was indicted in New York in October 1998, and Colombian police arrested him in Bogota last December.
Prosecutors say he headed a smuggling ring that shipped as many as 30 pounds of heroin to the United States on commercial flights and distributed it through New York, Houston and Miami.
Colombia banned extradition in 1991, capitulating to a wave of bombings and assassinations by the now defunct Medellin drug cartel and its notorious leader, Pablo Escobar.
The recent bombing in Bogota on November 11th revived painful memories of that era, although investigators have yet to blame it on drug traffickers.
Under heavy pressure from Washington, Colombia reinstated extradition in December 1997.
Colombia's President Andres Pastrana defiantly signed Lara's extradition papers just hours after the terrorist explosion ten days ago in Bogota.
U-S officials argue extradition is the only way to ensure that Colombian drug traffickers receive stiff punishments for their crimes.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Our view is the right approach is to bring to justice narcotics traffickers. To co-ordinate and co-operate as best as we can with Colombia. To praise the courage and commitment of President Pastrana and his administration in standing up to the narcotics traffickers."
SUPER CAPTION: James Rubin, U-S State Department spokesman
Because of weak laws, corruption and threats against judges and prosecutors, many top drug convicts have received short sentences in Colombia. They face harsher penalties in the U-S.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We certainly want to see extraditions, and we certainly hope that this courage and commitment that we've seen will be the harbinger of a greater ability for the United States and Colombia to work together in this battle."
SUPER CAPTION: James Rubin, U-S State Department spokesman.
Colombia exports 80 per cent of the world's cocaine and is becoming an increasingly supplier of heroin to the U-S.
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