U.S. Judge Rejects Colombian Extradition Bid

At the request of Colombia, the United States tried--but failed--Wednesday to extradite a former Colombian official accused by authorities in his homeland of helping to finance a 7-ton shipment of cocaine.

Victor Tafur would have been the first drug suspect to be handed over by the Justice Department to Colombia under an extradition treaty between the two countries dating to 1979.

At a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles B. Smith, lawyers and friends of Tafur, a young attorney who now is pursuing advanced studies in New York, portrayed him as the innocent victim of a financial transaction that went awry. Drug traffickers have been his personal and professional enemies, they argued.

The judge agreed, saying there was no probable cause to extradite Tafur, 37. “You’ve got a gaping hole . . . in your case,” he told Justice Department lawyers here.

U.S. prosecutors were under some pressure to cooperate with their counterparts in Colombia. The South American nation sent two accused drug traffickers to Miami in November to stand trial, and 30 more extradition requests by the U.S. are pending.

Justice Department officials prefer to try such drug cases in the United States, but authorities in Colombia have noted that the extradition treaty should be a two-way street.

The failed effort to extradite Tafur illustrates the sensitivity of relations between the two nations. The Clinton administration wants to strengthen anti-drug efforts in Colombia, where most of the cocaine that reaches the United States is produced. The U.S. Senate is debating whether to provide $1.3 billion in aid to help finance Colombia’s anti-drug strategy and strengthen its military with helicopters, training and intelligence data.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana has announced a $7.5-billion strategy to fight drug trafficking and shore up his country’s economy.

It is not unusual for Latin American drug fighters to be found profiting from the narcotics trade. In Colombia, more than two dozen politicians have been imprisoned for accepting drug money.

However, Tafur’s university associates said in court papers that he had fought against narcotics in his homeland, making enemies both inside and outside the Colombian government. Some of those opponents may have conspired to bring false charges against him, they said.

Law professors and students who know Tafur said that the case against him was weak and that his past efforts on behalf of his country demonstrate that he would be a most unlikely drug trafficker.

Tafur’s father was a high-ranking member of Colombia’s Congress and an outspoken critic of what he saw as his government’s inadequate efforts against narcotics traffickers. The elder Tafur helped draft the extradition treaty that was being used against his son.

The elder Tafur was shot and killed outside his son’s home in Cali, Colombia, eight years ago in an assassination blamed on drug cartel leaders.

Victor Tafur helped to run a government drug-eradication program in Colombia called Plante, which encourages farmers to cultivate crops other than coca, the source of cocaine.

While Tafur was supervising these efforts, six associates were killed--and he was severely injured--when their small plane crashed in the Andes mountains.

That led the young lawyer to seek treatment in a New York hospital. After his release, Tafur enrolled at Pace University School of Law in White Plains, N.Y., where he has been pursuing a master’s degree in environmental law.

Justice Department prosecutors told Judge Smith that the Colombians have evidence that Tafur deposited checks totaling about $350,000 into the accounts of E.I. Caribe, which they labeled a “front company” responsible for shipping 7 tons of cocaine.

Colombian authorities seized the shipment Dec. 3, 1998, in Cartagena from a container ship bound for Cuba, Jamaica and Spain, according to the complaint. Caribe allegedly owned the containers.

Joseph A. Tate, Tafur’s defense attorney, said his client had no connection with E.I. Caribe. He explained that Tafur’s mother had received 560 million Colombian pesos as back payment of a pension belonging to her deceased husband and that Tafur sought to convert the money into U.S. dollars and put it into a Swiss bank account for the family.

On the advice of a money trader, Tafur wrote 13 checks made out to the trader for deposit in a Swiss bank. Tate produced documents showing that Tafur later received confirmation that the money had been deposited.

But without Tafur’s knowledge, the checks turned up in Caribe’s accounts, improperly reendorsed to the company by the money trader, who remains at large, Tate said.

“The key issue is Mr. Tafur’s knowledge and intent to take part in a money laundering scheme,” prosecutor Tom Eicher told Smith. “We concede there is no direct evidence of that, but the issue is frequently determined through circumstances, and the circumstances are present here.”

But Tate insisted that “we can account for the entirety of the pension money Victor transferred. There is no evidence at all that Victor wrote a check to E.I. Caribe.”

He further contended that Tafur risked assassination if he were extradited to Colombia.

Smith expressed doubt that U.S. prosecutors, presenting evidence gathered only by Colombian officials, had accurately traced the path of the supposed drug money.

Eicher told reporters that the judge’s refusal to extradite Tafur is not subject to appeal. However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service could seek to revoke Tafur’s immigrant visa and seek to deport him. That process, with its many built-in appeals, could take years.