WORLD : U.S. Trial for Ex-Bolivia Official
Bolivia expelled a former interior minister to the United States today to face trial on drug charges, the Interior Ministry announced.
Luis Arce Gomez, dubbed by U.S. government officials as the “Minister of Cocaine,” had been on the run since the early 1980s. He was flown to Miami after being arrested on a farm near Santa Cruz, 550 miles southeast of La Paz, Sunday.
The former army colonel was interior minister in the military government of Gen. Luis Garcia Meza between 1980 and 1981.
Bolivia has no extradition treaty with Washington and the expulsion of Arce Gomez was believed to be the first time a wanted drug figure had been sent to the United States for trial.
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