Colombia extradites convicts to US
On November 23, 2007, President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe’s office informed in a statement that the Colombian government authorized the extradition of 10 people to the US for trial on drug and money-laundering charges.
According to the statement, drug-trafficking charges will be faced in Florida by Fernando Jose Ramirez Munive, Maria Catalina Perez Ochoa, Jose Jaime Calderon Gomez, Jorge Mario de Jesus Fernandez Borge and Eduard Claret Martinez Romero. Both Luis Gilberto Baez Briceno and Daniel Alonso Vanegas Zamora will face money laundering charges in New York. California waits for the extradition of John Jairo Orozco. Fernando Zapata Bermudez will be accused by a federal court in the District of Columbia, while Pedro Luis Duque – by a court in New York state.
It should be noted that since the conservative Uribe took his position in August 2002 Colombia has extradited more than 600 people on drug charges. Most of them went to the US, and the extraditions have provided Bogota with USD 5 billion (mostly in military aid) over the last 7 years.