Miguel Angel Mejia reputed cocaine kingpin extradited

Colombia extradited reputed cocaine kingpin Miguel Angel Mejia on Wednesday, making him the 16th paramilitary warlord dispatched to the United States on drug trafficking charges in less than a year.The 49-year-old Mejia was an anomaly among far-right militia bosses. After initially demobilizing in a peace pact with the government, he returned to being a fugitive and authorities say he ran a major drug gang.His extradition Wednesday aboard a DEA Super King turboprop plane was confirmed by Col. German Jaimes, deputy director of Colombia's judicial police, who said Mejia was bound for Washington, D.C. News media were not invited to witness the departure.
Police killed Mejia's twin brother and alleged crime partner Victor in an April 2008 raid. Mejia himself was captured the next month in a false compartment in a truck cab. The United States had offered $5 million rewards for the capture of either Mejia, who were known as the twins, "Los Mellizos" in SpanishMiguel Angel was first indicted in the United States in 2000 and is to be tried in District of Columbia federal court.He and brother began trafficking in the 1990s and shipped 4 to 10 metric tons of cocaine to the United States and Europe monthly, according to Col. Cesar Pinzon, chief of Colombia's judicial police.Mejia's lawyer, Angelica Maria Martinez, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that her client faced no charges in Colombia but nevertheless confessed to leading a far-right militia that she said was responsible for the massacre of 10 people in 2004 in a town called Flor Amarillo.
Prosecutors say they are investigating Mejia's involvement in many more killings.
Martinez said Mejia was hoping that in exchange for confessing to his crimes and handing over ill-gotten gains he might negotiate a reduced sentence in the United States.U.S. prosecutors have shown themselves ill-disposed to such deals, however, seeking prison terms of well over 20 years for other Colombian paramilitary warlords extradited there on drug trafficking charges.Since taking office in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe has extradited more than 800 criminal suspects to the United States to stand trial, the vast majority on drug trafficking charges.

Ramiro Vanoy-Murillo, a former commander in the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), was sentenced to 24 years and four months. Francisco Zul

Ramiro Vanoy-Murillo, a former commander in the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), was sentenced to 24 years and four months. Francisco Zuluaga-Lindo, also of the AUC, was sentenced to 21 years and eight months. Both men, imprisoned for two years in Colombia before their extradition in May to the US, were accused of involvement in massive cocaine smuggling operations in the late 1990s. In the extradition deal, the US government promised not to seek the maximum penalty of life imprisonment. "I want to express to the court, the US government and my family my repentance and remorse for my criminal conduct," said Vanoy-Murillo.Two right-wing paramilitary warlords extradited with 12 others from Colombia in May amid great fanfare were ordered Thursday to spend decades behind U.S. bars after pleading guilty to roles in a far-reaching cocaine smuggling conspiracy.U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore imposed the maximum sentences under federal guidelines on 60-year-old Ramiro Vanoy Murillo and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo, 38, even though prosecutors recommended lesser sentences.Vanoy Murillo was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison and Zuluaga Lindo to just under 22 years. They are the first of 14 warlords extradited in May to be sentenced to federal prison.The men were leaders of Colombia's right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym AUC. The AUC has been blamed for hundreds of killings, kidnappings and other crimes considered some of the worst atrocities of Colombia's long-running civil conflict.Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the 14 were sent to face U.S. justice because they were still committing crimes from inside Colombian prisons and had not paid restitution to their victims. They were yanked from their cells May 12 and flown as a group to the U.S. in a top-secret operation that surprised even prosecutors working to document paramilitary crimes in Colombia.The U.S. charges did not mention Colombian violence. Authorities focused on attempts by Vanoy Murillo, Zuluaga Lindo and many others to smuggle an estimated 20 tons of cocaine into the United States from December 1997 to November 1999.In court Thursday, Vanoy Murillo expressed "my remorse, my repentance" and again admitted his guilt."I am here to accept responsibility for my actions," he said in Spanish, according to a court interpreter.Zuluaga Lindo also said he was ready to accept Moore's sentence.
U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the two were initially jailed Aug. 16, 2006, on Colombia arrest warrants issued at the request of U.S. authorities.
U.S. prosecutors said Vanoy Murillo, also known as "Cuco," was a former commander of an AUC wing known as the "Bloque Mineros" — "Miners Bloc" in English — financed mainly by cocaine trafficking. Prosecutors said the group controlled many airstrips and cocaine production facilities in Colombia and provided security for other smugglers.Zuluaga Lindo, a large man nicknamed "El Gordo" — or "The Fat One" — disarmed with his group in August 2005. The moves were supposed to have protected them from extradition to the U.S. and assure them lesser prison terms in Colombia, in return for publicly confessing their crimes.In Colombia, authorities described Vanoy as a veteran drug trafficker and an ally in the 1980s of Colombia's most famous narco, Pablo Escobar. Vanoy had commanded an irregular army of some 1,000 men in a region where the paramilitaries killed hundreds, they said.Zuluaga Lindo is among drug traffickers who are believed to have paid millions of dollars for a paramilitary "franchise" so they could later take advantage of a government amnesty program that offered reduced sentences, those officials said. Zuluaga told Colombian prosecutors he was part of the AUC's political and financial wing and had no part in and did not order any killings.One other AUC member extradited in May — 47-year-old Diego Murillo — has pleaded guilty in New York federal court and is awaiting sentencing in December. The others are being prosecuted in Tampa, Washington and Houston.The Miami guilty pleas grew out of a huge federal investigation known as "Operation Millenium" that since 1999 has resulted in 38 convictions of drug traffickers and money launderers operating out of Colombia and also Mexico.
The AUC was created two decades ago by landowners and cocaine cartels to battle leftist rebels who held sway over much of Colombia's countryside, though it quickly morphed into one of the country's biggest drug-trafficking organizations.
Colombia's civil conflict is now in its fifth decade. More than 30,000 paramilitary fighters have demobilized since 2003 as part of a peace effort that saw many warlords surrender to the Colombian government.

Ramiro Vanoy Murillo and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo sentenced to more than 24 years in prison and Zuluaga Lindo to just under 22 years.

Vanoy Murillo was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison and Zuluaga Lindo to just under 22 years. They are the first of 14 warlords extradited in May to be sentenced to federal prison.The men were leaders of Colombia's right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym AUC. The AUC has been blamed for hundreds of killings, kidnappings and other crimes considered some of the worst atrocities of Colombia's long-running civil conflict.Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said the 14 were sent to face U.S. justice because they were still committing crimes from inside Colombian prisons and had not paid restitution to their victims. They were yanked from their cells May 12 and flown as a group to the U.S. in a top-secret operation that surprised even prosecutors working to document paramilitary crimes in Colombia.The U.S. charges did not mention Colombian violence. Authorities focused on attempts by Vanoy Murillo, Zuluaga Lindo and many others to smuggle an estimated 20 tons of cocaine into the United States from December 1997 to November 1999.In court Thursday, Vanoy Murillo expressed "my remorse, my repentance" and again admitted his guilt."I am here to accept responsibility for my actions," he said in Spanish, according to a court interpreter.Zuluaga Lindo also said he was ready to accept Moore's sentence.U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the two were initially jailed Aug. 16, 2006, on Colombia arrest warrants issued at the request of U.S. authorities.U.S. prosecutors said Vanoy Murillo, also known as "Cuco," was a former commander of an AUC wing known as the "Bloque Mineros" — "Miners Bloc" in English — financed mainly by cocaine trafficking. Prosecutors said the group controlled many airstrips and cocaine production facilities in Colombia and provided security for other smugglers.Zuluaga Lindo, a large man nicknamed "El Gordo" — or "The Fat One" — disarmed with his group in August 2005. The moves were supposed to have protected them from extradition to the U.S. and assure them lesser prison terms in Colombia, in return for publicly confessing their crimes.In Colombia, authorities described Vanoy as a veteran drug trafficker and an ally in the 1980s of Colombia's most famous narco, Pablo Escobar. Vanoy had commanded an irregular army of some 1,000 men in a region where the paramilitaries killed hundreds, they said.Zuluaga Lindo is among drug traffickers who are believed to have paid millions of dollars for a paramilitary "franchise" so they could later take advantage of a government amnesty program that offered reduced sentences, those officials said. Zuluaga told Colombian prosecutors he was part of the AUC's political and financial wing and had no part in and did not order any killings.One other AUC member extradited in May — 47-year-old Diego Murillo — has pleaded guilty in New York federal court and is awaiting sentencing in December. The others are being prosecuted in Tampa, Washington and Houston.The Miami guilty pleas grew out of a huge federal investigation known as "Operation Millenium" that since 1999 has resulted in 38 convictions of drug traffickers and money launderers operating out of Colombia and also Mexico.The AUC was created two decades ago by landowners and cocaine cartels to battle leftist rebels who held sway over much of Colombia's countryside, though it quickly morphed into one of the country's biggest drug-trafficking organizations.Colombia's civil conflict is now in its fifth decade. More than 30,000 paramilitary fighters have demobilized since 2003 as part of a peace effort that saw many warlords surrender to the Colombian government.

Diego Fernando Murillo indictment charges that he conspired to import thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States

Diego Fernando Murillo, 47, was extradited from Colombia on Tuesday along with 13 other jailed warlords as part an effort by President Álvaro Uribe to take a hard line against them and defuse a scandal. Mr. Murillo had been held in Colombia since 2005.The heavyset Mr. Murillo, who has a prosthetic leg and entered the courtroom with a pronounced limp, held his loose-fitting blue jeans up with one hand. He appeared weary and remained seated as his lawyer entered the not guilty plea.
The indictment against Mr. Murillo charges that he conspired to import thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States and to launder the drug proceeds. Prosecutors said the group for which he was the de facto leader, United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, supported its paramilitary activities and enriched its leaders through drug trafficking. The State Department has designated it as a foreign terrorist organization. During the brief court proceeding, Paul R. Nalven, a lawyer for Mr. Murillo, portrayed him as a pleasant and placid diplomat who served as a negotiator between Colombia’s government and the right-wing paramilitary faction he heads.
Contending that his client “conducts himself like a gentleman” and presents “zero physical threat,” Mr. Nalven asked the judge, Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court, to consider overruling a decision by the United States Marshals Service to house Mr. Murillo in a high-security section of the federal jail in Manhattan. Judge Berman suggested that Mr. Nalven contact federal jail authorities.
One of the prosecutors, Eric Snyder, an assistant United States attorney, acknowledged that Mr. Nalven’s client was a sophisticated man, but he painted a very different picture of him. “We argue that he is a sophisticated man who is capable of being the de facto leader of a 15,000-strong paramilitary organization, which was a cocaine importation empire,” Mr. Snyder told the judge. “We would also argue that, as opposed to being a tranquil person, we will offer evidence that he was in fact an assassin in Medellín” in his earlier years.
Responding to Mr. Nalven’s contention that his client respected authority, Mr. Snyder said Mr. Murillo was “widely believed to have been involved in the murder” of a member of the Colombian Congress. Others of the extradited warlords had been tied to senior lawmakers in the Colombian Congress and to members of Mr. Uribe’s family.
Mr. Snyder said the murder of the member of Congress led to Mr. Murillo’s arrest, but investigators have said the investigation into Mr. Murillo, who was believed to be responsible for much of the cocaine that wound up in New York City, began there in 2003 with a New York detective who first heard about him from an informant.

Pablo Rayo-Montano aka El Tio who had been on the run for 10 years. The arrest of the capo was spectacular.

Colombian-born Pablo Rayo-Montano, known as El Tio (the uncle) who was captured in Brazil.While not all the agents used disguises to snare their prey, the sheer scope of the operation appeared to take those arrested by surprise. Agents claimed to have seized more than 50 tonnes of cocaine and millions of dollars in the coordinated raids, after three years of surveillance.
"It is extremely significant when you consider the amount of cocaine - 52 tonnes," said a spokesman for the Drugs Enforcement Administration in Washington yesterday.
"That significant effect is going to be felt around the world." He said that more arrests could follow.
The prime catch, as far as the DEA officials and their colleagues in Brazil were concerned, was Rayo-Montano, who had been on the run for 10 years. The arrest of the capo was spectacular.Seven federal agents armed with assault rifles swept into the luxury apartment in the upmarket Itaim neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, which the capo shared with his wife, early on Tuesday.The officer responsible for his capture, Sergio Trivelin, told reporters that Rayo-Montano used an art gallery called Proart in the chic Jardins area to launder drug trafficking money and that he was responsible for sending at least 20 tonnes of cocaine to the US and Europe each month.Rayo-Montano is described as one of the world's top 10 drug traffickers by Brazilian authorities.Twelve arrest warrants were issued by police in Sao Paulo and among the arrests were six Argentines and two other Brazilians, including his wife, Elizabeth Albear.Police believe he used so-called "Go-Fast" motorboats to deliver the drug to the Gulf of Mexico, where it was then picked up by fishermen. His involvement in the cocaine trade is thought to stem back to the 1990s, when he became an associate of the Cali cartel in Colombia."The drugs were delivered disguised as fish," Mr Trivelin told the O Globo newspaper, adding that the trafficker was known to be negotiating the purchase of large amounts of tuna fish in Brazil.As well as running his fiefdom on islands around Panama, he also had extensive properties in Brazil, including apartments, art galleries and fishing companies. Police, who also found a painting by the Brazilian artist Di Cavalcanti in his flat, value El Tio's assets at at least $70m (37m).
Other arrests were made in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Such a large operation is almost unprecedented as it is difficult to coordinate when there are so many opportunities for information to leak.One of the features of the Rayo-Montano cartel, according to officials, was the vast scale of its transport system. "The organisation had its own private, rogue navy to run a drug business that was nearly as sophisticated as a small nation," DEA administrator Karen Tandy said in a press release.An estimated $70m (£37m) has been seized in the current round of arrests.
The Rayo-Montano organisation has been a major target for the DEA which claims that it is responsible for both cocaine and heroin smuggling to Europe and the US. Whether Rayo-Montano is now extradited to the US to stand trial is another issue.
Although the US would like to see him in a federal court, where, if convicted, he would probably spend the rest of his life behind bars, Brazil is likely to want to try him there first.

Col. Bayron Carvajal Colombian army colonel convicted killing members of narcotics police squad

Colombian army colonel and 14 soldiers were convicted Monday of killing members of an elite, U.S.-trained counter- narcotics police squad on the orders of drug traffickers, one of the most sordid of several recent cases of alleged corruption in the armed forces.A judge in Cali found Col. Bayron Carvajal and the soldiers guilty of aggravated homicide in the slaughter of 10 police officers and an informant in a May 2006 ambush outside a rural nursing home near Cali. Sentences will be imposed in two weeks. The massacre was just one of several scandals over the last two years that have tarnished this country's armed forces and raised questions about the U.S.-sponsored program called Plan Colombia that in 2000 began funneling millions of dollars in aid here. Since 2006, high-ranking military officers are alleged to have sold secrets to drug traffickers to help them elude capture, and to have planted fake bombs to gain career advancement. A recent report by human rights groups found that extrajudicial killings by the army have increased since the early years of Plan Colombia. Carvajal maintained his innocence throughout the trial, saying he and his troops thought the police were drug traffickers. More than 100 witnesses were called to testify, some of whom linked Carvajal to both leftist guerrillas and drug gangs.
Defense attorneys said the legal process was tainted by public statements from the attorney general and President Alvaro Uribe that the soldiers had murdered the police.The soldiers lay in wait, then fired hundreds of rounds and threw several grenades at the police unit as it was about to launch an operation to recover 220 pounds of cocaine that a tipster had said was stashed inside a psychiatric facility in the town of Jamundi.Six police officers were found to have been shot at close range. None of the soldiers were wounded.No drugs were found, and the informant -- who prosecutors said spoke by phone with Carvajal shortly before the attack -- was killed as well.The preponderance of Plan Colombia aid, which in recent years has averaged more than $650 million a year, has gone to expand, equip and train Colombia's military and national police. Congress was assured that human rights abuses and corruption in the Colombian armed forces would decline as a result of U.S. training.

Retired Gen. Pauselino ,Leobardo Latorre

A retired army general and former prosecutor were among 24 people arrested Thursday for their alleged roles in a drug trafficking ring that exported cocaine through neighboring Venezuela, Colombia's chief prosecutor said.
Mario Iguaran said at least nine of those arrested are wanted for extradition by the United States.Retired Gen. Pauselino
Latorre is suspected of involvement in the gang's finances while his nephew, Leobardo Latorre, a former regional prosecutor, allegedly paid bribes to keep associates out of legal trouble, Iguaran said. He would not provide more details.
Extradition requests are not pending against the two, he said.
Attempts to reach the two Latorres or their representatives for comment were unsuccessful. Telephone calls to officials to locate the men or their lawyers were not returned.
The investigation began in July 2006 when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration provided Colombian prosecutors with leads on the band, which allegedly produced at least 10 metric tons (11 U.S. tons) of cocaine a month in labs in the northeastern states of Bolivar, Cesar and Norte de Santander.
«This criminal band used Venezuela as a bridge» to export drugs from Colombia to Europe and the U.S., Iguaran was quoted as saying in the communique.
He said those arrested _ in simultaneous raids early Thursday in 11 Colombian cities including Bogota _ would be charged with drug trafficking, money laundering and fraud, among other crimes.
The operation was launched the same day the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Colombia with 10 members of the U.S. Congress on a trip to promote a free trade agreement with this volatile Andean nation.
U.S. and Colombian officials say Venezuela has increasingly become a conduit for the smuggling of cocaine to the United States and Europe.
Venezuela's socialist leader, President Hugo Chavez, denies the accusations, calling them politically motivated.

submarine capable of smuggling up to 12 metric tons of cocaine

Colombian marines seized a makeshift submarine capable of smuggling up to 12 metric tons of cocaine through the Pacific to Central America, making it one of the largest such craft found, authorities said.
The nearly completed fiberglass submarine, found in a rural area in south Narino province, had space for four crew members, the Navy said in a statement.
Colombia's Pacific coast has become a key transport route for traffickers looking to access commercial sea lanes north to Mexico and the United States. Guerrillas, paramilitaries and traffickers often fight to control Pacific drug routes.
Rudimentary submarines and submersible containers dragged behind container ships are among the more inventive transport methods used by traffickers. Since 2005, Colombia's navy has captured 11 homemade submarines.

US drug enforcement agent killed in Colombia

An official of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has been shot dead in Colombia.
Police say the man, Frank Moreno, was killed after an argument outside a nightclub in an up-market area of the capital, Bogota, late on Saturday.
A police spokesman said the killing did not appear to be planned and it was not immediately clear if Mr Moreno was on duty at the time.