‘Trafficker of 1st Order’ Faces Bogota Charges

The most important drug suspect seized since Colombia began a major drug crackdown six weeks ago will be flown to Bogota in a matter of hours to face drug smuggling charges, authorities said today.

Evaristo Porras Ardila, linked to the powerful Medellin cocaine cartel, was being held in the southwestern city of Pasto after being deported Sunday night from Ecuador.

The Department of Administrative Security said he will be flown to the capital and brought before a judge to face the smuggling charges.

Not on U.S. List

Porras is not on the list of 12 “most wanted” suspects whose extradition is sought by the United States.

But Department of Administrative Security spokesman Diva Rojas said he is the most important drug suspect caught since the crackdown began Aug. 18. A Defense Ministry spokesman described him as a “trafficker of the first order.”

The Bogota daily newspaper El Tiempo said Porras was the administrator of the Medellin cartel’s operations in southern Colombia, especially its Amazon jungle cocaine laboratories on the borders with Brazil and Peru.

Ecuadorean authorities said Porras was deported Sunday night on grounds of having an expired visa and using falsified documents.

They said Porras, who was arrested Wednesday in his Quito apartment, lived in Ecuador under an assumed name since 1987 and ran a Quito company that did foreign trade in farm machinery.