LOS ANGELES : Bolivian Drug Case Figure Loses Extradition Fight

A woman who prosecutors allege was a lieutenant in one of the most powerful cocaine cartels in the world lost her battle to remain in Bolivia on Friday and was put on an airplane bound for Los Angeles, where she is expected to stand trial.

The woman, Asunta Roca, battled extradition for the last year after indictments were handed down in San Diego and Los Angeles charging her and 23 other people with conspiracy to manufacture cocaine. In court papers, federal prosecutors have alleged that Roca’s brother, Jorge Roca Suarez, was the kingpin of Bolivia’s most powerful cocaine cartel, one that shipped hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine to the United States and maintained its power through bribes, kidnapings, beatings and murder.

Roca is charged with being part of the organization and of acting as one of its chief operatives in Latin America. She is one of three suspects who were in custody in Bolivia and is the first to be extradited.