Colombia Extradites Alleged Drug Smuggler for Trial in U.S.

A suspected cocaine smuggler was extradited to the United States on Thursday, the second time that President Andres Pastrana has sent one of his countrymen to stand trial abroad.

Orlando Garcia, an alleged member of a gang that shipped cocaine to the United States, departed Bogota’s international airport on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration plane bound for New York.

He was escorted onto the tarmac by about 200 police officers.

Garcia, 47, is wanted on a New Jersey indictment alleging that he shipped 230 pounds of cocaine into the U.S., Colombian officials said.

Seeking improved ties with Washington, Pastrana has resumed extraditions from Colombia after a decade-long hiatus. A heroin suspect who Pastrana sent north in November was the first Colombian extradited since 1990.

U.S. officials long have complained that Colombia’s corruption-riddled justice system is incapable of handing down tough sentences for drug traffickers.

Thursday’s extradition comes just two weeks after the U.S. Congress approved a $1.3-billion aid package to help Colombia battle narcotics traffickers and leftist rebels who protect the drug trade.

In Washington, White House anti-drug czar Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey saluted the extradition as “a dramatic breakthrough--an example of Colombian democracy and the process working well.”

Garcia was arrested in February 1999 along with 18 alleged members of a smuggling ring dubbed “Los Niches” that shipped cocaine through the central Pacific port town of Buenaventura.

The gang’s reputed kingpin, Jorge Asprilla, remains in prison--one of at least 50 Colombians whom the U.S. wants extradited.

Among those battling their hand-overs in Colombian courts is Fabio Ochoa, a former top leader of the Medellin cartel led by the late Pablo Escobar.