Colombia Extradites 3 to U.S. : Drugs: Two accused traffickers face trials in American courts. The third was convicted in absentia on cocaine charges and will be sentenced in Detroit.

Colombia extradited a convicted cocaine trafficker and two accused drug figures to the United States on Saturday, bringing to four the number of people turned over to U.S. officials since the Bogota government cracked down on the country’s drug cartels in August.

On Sept. 6, the reputed finance officer of the notorious Medellin cartel, Eduardo Martinez Romero, was turned over to U.S. authorities and flown to Atlanta amid escalating threats of retaliatory violence against the Bogota authorities by drug kingpins.

In another development, possibly drug-related, news agencies reported from Colombia on Saturday that gunmen killed a broadcast journalist in front of his home in the northern state of Cordoba. The victim, William Bendeck Olivella, 57, was the fourth journalist reported slain in that country in four days.

The Justice Department identified the Colombians extradited Saturday as Bernardo Pelaez Roldan, 44; Ana Rodriguez de Tamayo, 50, and Roberto Carlini Arrico, 37. They were delivered to U.S. marshals at 3 a.m. in Bogota and immediately flown to Miami.

Pelaez was described by a U.S. government attorney as “one of the most significant players in the Medellin cartel,” which is believed to control 80% of the cocaine that enters the United States from Colombia. Even so, he and the two other prisoners are not among the 12 “most-wanted” drug figures identified by the Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Administration.

Pelaez was convicted in absentia in federal court in Detroit five years ago of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute one ton of cocaine. He is scheduled to be brought before a U.S. magistrate in Detroit on Monday for sentencing.

Tamayo will be tried in Miami on federal charges of importing cocaine and conspiracy to possess and sell cocaine.

Carlini was transferred to Orlando, Fla., where he faces federal charges of importing and possessing with intent to distribute 7,000 pounds of marijuana. He also faces Florida state charges of drug trafficking involving more than a ton of cocaine, according to state prosecutor Pete Antonacci of Orlando.

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh praised Colombian President Vigilio Barco Vargas and his government for turning over the three prisoners.

“I commend (Barco) and the government . . . for their continued diligence in the war against narco-terrorists,” Thornburgh said. He continued:

“The Colombian people are setting an example for the world as they continue to extradite international drug traffickers in the face of continued threats and acts of intimidation.”

Gen. Miguel Maza Marquez, chief of Colombia’s war on drugs, called Pelaez a “much bigger” drug figure than Martinez, the first person to be extradited as part of Colombia’s latest efforts to crack down on its drug cartels.

Martinez, brought to Atlanta to await trial on money-laundering charges, was known as the “treasurer” of the Medellin cartel.

Pelaez was arrested last month in Bogota.

Tamayo, like Pelaez an accused member of the Medellin cartel, was jailed Aug. 23 in the Colombian resort city of Cartagena. Carlini, son of Italian immigrants, was jailed in Cartagena a week later.

Meanwhile, the killing of broadcast journalist Bendeck coincided with continued threats by drug traffickers on the lives of employees of El Espectador, a Bogota newspaper whose offices were bombed and seriously damaged Sept. 2.

The Medellin cartel was directly linked to the killing of two employees of El Espectador in Medellin last Tuesday, and anonymous callers threatened to kill more employees of the newspaper’s Medellin bureau unless they leave town. A magazine director was also slain Tuesday in Medellin.

Police said Bendeck, director of a local radio news program in Monteria, about 300 miles north of Bogota, was shot and killed by two gunmen in front of his home Friday night. The killers escaped on a motorcycle.

Police had no suspects in Bendeck’s killing, but Colombia’s leading newspaper, El Tiempo of Bogota, described him as a “passionate” opponent of the drug cartels and guerrilla groups allied with them.

In another action Friday, Colombia deported a Canadian citizen arrested in Cartagena. Richard Houle, who had been living in Colombia for four years, was reported by the Bogota newspaper La Prensa to have operated a drug ring in the Caribbean port and to be wanted by Canadian authorities on cocaine smuggling charges.

SH BACKGROUND The first and still the most important drug lord Colombia has extradited to the United States is Carlos Lehder Rivas, 38, a Medellin cartel partner. He was called one of the top three cocaine kingpins in the world. Colombian troops swooped down on his ranch and arrested him and 14 bodyguards in 1987. A flamboyant figure, he once announced he would pay $350,000 to anyone who would kill the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He went on trial in Jacksonville, Fla. In July, 1988, a federal judge sentenced him to life in prison plus 135 years for importing 3.3 tons of cocaine into the United States.