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CNN Saturday Morning News

Alleged Colombian Drug Kingpin Extradited to U.S.

Aired September 08, 2001 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with an alleged godfather of a Colombian drug cartel facing American justice.

Fabio Ochoa arrived in Miami earlier this morning on a Drug Enforcement Agency plane from Bogota. The man, known as Little Fabio, went to a federal detention facility to await an appearance before a U.S. magistrate.

Ochoa's extradition is considered to be a milestone, and Carl Penhall (ph) tells us how Ochoa's flight is -- how he fought it every step of the way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARL PENHALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Times and tactics have changed for one of the kingpins from the darkest days of Colombia's cocaine trade.

As his family leads protests in the street with the slogan, "Yesterday I made a mistake, today I'm innocent," Fabio Ochoa has fought a slick PR offensive to escape extradition to the United States.

Along with his own Web site, Ochoa's taken out newspaper ads and set up billboards, but his plight has stirred little public sympathy. Things were different in the 1980s when he was henchman to cocaine king Pablo Escobar in the notorious Medellin cartel. The battle cry then was, "Better a tomb in Colombia than a cell in the United States."

Dubbing themselves the Extraditables, the cartel waged a war of bombings, kidnappings, and killings and forced the state to ban extradition.

One of the kidnap victims was Andres Pastrana, who was then running for Bogota mayor. Now, as president, Pastrana has authorized Ochoa's extradition.

Ochoa, known as Little Fabio in the criminal underworld, and his two brothers turned themselves in to Colombian authorities in 1990. They were given lenient sentences and a pledge they wouldn't be extradited.

Ochoa walked free in 1996, but Colombian and U.S. authorities say he went back to his crooked ways, taking part in a billion-dollar-a- month cocaine smuggling ring.

Ochoa was arrested again in 1999, two years after the ban on extradition was lifted. The United States, which has poured billions of dollars into the Colombian drug war, demanded Ochoa be turned over.

If convicted, Ochoa could spend the rest of his life in the U.S. cell he and Escobar fought so hard to avoid.

Carl Penhall for CNN, Bogota, Colombia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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