Colombian paramilitaries to be tried by US for terror, drugs
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Fourteen Colombian paramilitary recently extradited to the United States will be tried on drug and terrorism charges, the US Department of Justice said Tuesday.
The 14 paramilitary group chiefs, and an allied drug trafficker also extradited, face charges including conspiracy to import cocaine, providing material support to a designated terrorist organization and money laundering, the department said in a statement.
"Fourteen leaders of one of the world's largest and most powerful drug-trafficking organizations arrived in handcuffs on US soil today," said Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart.
Thirteen of the paramilitaries and the drug trafficker arrived Tuesday from Bogota at the Opa-Locka airport outside Miami, each in handcuffs and escorted by two DEA agents. One other paramilitary leader was extradited last week.
The 14 paramilitaries indicted "range from kingpin to block (regional) commanders who all used the drug trade to finance their illegal activities and poison Americans with multi-tons of cocaine," Leonhart said.
US Attorney General Michael Mukasey congratulated the Colombian government on the extraditions.
"We commend the courage of the government of Colombia, which recognizes that these crimes pose a serious threat to both of our nations. With continued cooperation, we will ensure that those who commit such crimes face justice," he said.
Most notorious among the extradited is Salvatore Mancuso, former leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) -- the paramilitary umbrella organization -- who since his arrest two years ago has testified in Colombia about his past contacts with top Colombian officials.
The defendants will be tried in federal courts in the District of Columbia, central and southern Florida, New York and Texas, the Justice Department said.
Thousands of Colombian paramilitary fighters demobilized in recent years to take advantage of a law limiting their prison sentences to eight years and protecting them from extradition if they do so.
But the United States has argued that many paramilitary leaders continued their drug trafficking activities from behind bars.
Paramilitary groups first formed 30 years ago to protect Colombian landowners from leftist rebels, and at times numbered as many as 31,000 fighters.
The groups rely on drug trafficking, particularly cocaine, to finance their activities. They have been linked to civilian massacres and the murders of politicians, union leaders and journalists.
The AUC officially demobilized the last of its fighters in April, 2006, but recent investigations have revealed extensive links between the AUC and Colombian government officials currently in office.
The country's Supreme Court has been probing the AUC since 2006, and has so far linked 63 current and former politicians to the paramilitaries; 31 have been jailed.
Last month President Alvaro Uribe admitted he himself was being investigated, and denied charges he helped plan a 1997 massacre by paramilitaries.
Uribe said the charges were lodged by a former member of the paramilitary, whom he described as a disgruntled convict with an ax to grind.
Uribe's cousin Mario Uribe, who presided over Colombia's senate until October 2007, has been arrested, after the Supreme Court investigation linked him to purchases of land from the paramilitaries.
The current president of Colombia's federal legislature, Nancy Gutierrez, is also under investigation for alleged paramilitary ties.
The issue of Uribe's alleged links to the murderous group has led to US lawmakers holding up the Colombia-US free trade pact.
But opposition groups in Colombia have accused the Uribe government of extraditing the paramilitaries to the United States to torpedo the investigation.
"The extradition of these paramilitary bosses prevents their confessions from incriminating lawmakers from the ruling party (Uribe supporters) and implicating members of the executive branch in 'paramilitary-politics,'" Colombia's main opposition PDA party said Tuesday in a statement.
"This makes a mockery of the victims and their right to truth and reparations," it added.
