Another 3 Judges Resign in Colombia : Mayor Puts Cocaine Capital Under Curfew to Combat Violence

Three more judges resigned in Medellin, the nation’s cocaine capital, after threats were made by drug lords seeking to halt a government crackdown on narcotics trafficking, authorities said today.

Also today, Medellin Mayor Juan Gomez Martinez put the city under a 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew to help combat the string of bombings and other attacks that have plagued the city.

The resignations of three more judges brought to 108 the number of judges who have quit since the traffickers vowed Aug. 18 to retaliate against the government, police, journalists and others seen as a threat to the drug empire.

The traffickers have said they will kill 10 judges for every Colombian extradited to the United States to stand trial on drug charges.

The Medellin magistrates, who resigned on Tuesday, had been investigating slayings believed to have been ordered by drug traffickers.

The government, meanwhile, was reported to be preparing to extradite to the United States the first drug figure since the traffickers’ terror campaign began two weeks ago.

The syndicated TV news program “Noticiero 24 Horas” reported the Colombian government notified Eduardo Martinez Romero on Tuesday that he had five working days, or until next Tuesday, to appeal an extradition notice. Martinez, a 35-year-old economist, faces federal charges in Atlanta in connection with a $1.2-billion operation for laundering cocaine profits. He is being held under heavy guard by the investigations division of Colombia’s national police force.

Authorities imposed the curfew on Medellin today after a series of bombings this week and the foiling of a rocket attack on a fuel tank Tuesday night.

Police said three men stepped from a taxi Tuesday night, pulled four hand-held rocket launchers from a suitcase and aimed them at the tank at a state-owned liquor factory. Factory guards scared them off by opening fire, averting possible disaster for 90 workers inside the plant, police said.

This morning, soldiers patrolled city streets in Medellin, stopping pedestrians to search them for weapons and check their identity cards.

In the capital, a Defense Ministry spokesman said 11,015 people had so far been detained in the nationwide operation against suspected drug traffickers started on Aug. 18 after the assassination of a judge, a Medellin police commander and a leading presidential candidate.

Police and troops have also seized 346 aircraft and 464 ranches, estates, buildings and homes worth millions of dollars belonging to suspected traffickers.

Military and police have conducted 1,965 searches as part of the crackdown, seizing 1,313 land vehicles, 925 arms, 6,064 rounds of ammunition, 168 two-way radios, almost five tons of cocaine paste and 450 pounds of cocaine.