low graphics version | feedback | help
|
 Hannah FreemanHannah Freeman reports for BBC news  real 28k  |
Key expulsion in drugs war
Flores needs oxygen to help him breathe |
Colombia has extradited one of South America's most-wanted drug barons to the United States, continuing its fight against a booming narcotics trade.
Fernando Jose Flores Garmendia, nicknamed the Fat Man, was handed over to US drug enforcement agents and bundled onto a plane bound for southern Florida.
 With threats, psychological torture ... I will sign whatever [US officials] put in front of me  |
| Flores |
US prosecutors are also keen to question him about his links to the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers who headed the notorious Cali drug cartel - once blamed for 80% of the world's cocaine traffic.
The brothers have been serving time in a Bogota prison since their capture in mid-1995. But Flores may have evidence that they continue to run their drug empire from their cells.
Flores visited the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers in prison |
Washington hopes he will turn star witness and help bring the brothers to trial in a US court.
In an interview published this week by the Colombian magazine Semana, Flores voiced fears about his extradition.
"With threats, psychological torture ... I will sign whatever [US officials] put in front of me so that they get what they want - the extradition of the Rodriguezes," he said.
But a spokesman for the US embassy in Bogota said he was unaware that any fresh request for the Rodriguezes was pending.
President Pastrana is getting tough with the drug cartels |
The alleged drugs trafficker, who is believed to be Venezuelan, is the second man to be sent for trial in the US in less than a week.
The extraditions are the first for nine years, and are said to reflect the Colombian Government's desire to show its resolve in the fight fighting the illegal drugs trade.
Another 39 alleged traffickers await possible extradition.
This has raised fears of reprisals from drugs bosses who effectively forced the Colombian Government to abandon extradition in 1991 through a succession of bombings and assassinations.
But President Andres Pastrana has vowed not to give in to further intimidation.
|
Search BBC News Online |
|
|
 Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
 | BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
|
| BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
|
|
See also: |
|
 |
|
 |
21 Nov 99 | Americas |
|
Colombia extradites drug suspect |
| |
|
|
12 Nov 99 | Americas |
|
Colombia presses on with extraditions |
| |
|
|
12 Nov 99 | Americas |
|
Colombia bomb kills seven |
| |
|
|
07 May 99 | Americas |
|
Drug factory rumbled in jungle |
| |
|
|
05 Nov 99 | Americas |
|
New alliance in drugs war |
| |
|
|
Internet links: |
|
|
|
|
|
Colombian Government |
| |
|
|
Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission |
| |
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites |
|
Links to other Americas stories are at the foot of the page.
E-mail this story to a friend
~RS~a~RS~international~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~37~RS~)