Colombia Extradites Another Drug Suspect to U.S.

For the second time in less than a week, Colombia braved a possible terrorist backlash and extradited a major drug suspect to the United States.

Venezuelan Fernando Jose Flores, 38, who faces a U.S. indictment for allegedly shipping cocaine to Florida on behalf of the Cali drug cartel, was whisked away on a U.S. government plane to Miami on Thursday.

On Sunday, the government extradited a suspected Colombian heroin kingpin, Jaime Orlando Lara Nausa. It was the first time since 1990 that Colombia had delivered one of its nationals to stand trial in the U.S.

But the man extradited Thursday may prove the bigger catch. U.S. prosecutors believe that Flores, who weighs more than 300 pounds and is nicknamed “the Fat Man,” may provide testimony they need to request the extraditions of two brothers suspected of running the Cali cocaine cartel.

Flores was complaining of breathing problems when he arrived in Miami, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Brent Eaton said. He was taken to Miami’s Federal Detention Center.

The resumption of extraditions marks a historic change for Colombia, producer of 80% of the world’s cocaine. It outlawed them in 1991, capitulating to a wave of bombings and assassinations by late Medellin drug boss Pablo Escobar. They were reinstated in late 1997.

Many Colombians have feared that drug traffickers would revive the terror--a concern heightened when a car bomb two weeks ago killed eight people in a shopping district in Bogota, the capital.