Colombia Extradites 4 to U.S. in New Drug Offensive

Four fugitives indicted on drug charges in the United States were flown to Florida on Saturday by the Colombian government in the first such cooperation with the Justice Department since the two countries reached a new extradition treaty in 1982, the department announced.

While the four, all Colombians, are not considered kingpins in Latin American drug smuggling, “they’re pretty significant,” Justice Department spokesman Thomas P. DeCair said.

Three were indicted by federal grand juries in Miami or Washington on charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine. The fourth was indicted on charges that stem from a multimillion-dollar money-laundering operation related to the drug trade.

Justice Department officials cited the extraditions as a sign of Colombian officials’ willingness to defy threats of violence and to cooperate with efforts to stem the flow of cocaine into the United States.

“We’re hopeful they’ll begin a flow of extraditions,” DeCair said.

“The real significance is that Colombia--despite the violence and threats of violence and internal politics, and opposition to ever allowing a Colombian to be extradited”--has allowed the transfers to take place, the spokesman said.

On April 30, Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, who was at the center of government efforts to investigate the drug syndicates, was assassinated. Afterward, President Belisario Betancur promised that his nation would begin turning over Colombians wanted on drug charges in other countries.

Betancur, whose South American nation has become the keystone of the international traffic in cocaine, promised a “war to the finish” against the flourishing Colombian underworld empires that smuggle cocaine and marijuana into the United States.

But until the gangland-style assassination of his 37-year-old justice minister, he had refused to extradite Colombians to the United States. As of last May, 26 were wanted in this country.

After the slaying, Betancur signed extradition orders for one of the key drug dealers wanted in the United States--but the fugitive disappeared. With the shift in government policy in Colombia, other major drug traffickers went underground, and no signs of success were apparent until the announcement, made in Washington and Bogota, that the extraditions had taken place Saturday.

“The United States salutes the courageous action of President Betancur,” Atty. Gen. William French Smith said in a statement. “The extradition of these fugitives represents a significant victory in both Colombia’s and the United States’ efforts to curb international drug trafficking.”

The four fugitives were identified by the Justice Department as Marcos Cadavid, Hernan Botero Moreno, Ricardo Pavon Jatter and Said Pavon Jatter.

They were flown from Bogota, the Colombian capital, to Homestead Air Force Base, south of Miami, aboard a Colombian C-130 cargo plane. Once in the United States, they were taken into custody by U.S. marshals.

Cadavid was flown by private aircraft to Washington to be held for arraignment in U.S. District Court on Monday. The others are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Miami the same day.

According to the Justice Department, Cadavid is charged with conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine into the United States during a period between Nov. 1, 1976, and Jan. 1, 1983. Botero Moreno is charged with participating in a money-laundering conspiracy from December, 1979, to October, 1980.

Ricardo and Said Pavon Jatter, who are brothers, are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine from April, 1981, to October, 1982, the Justice Department said.