U.S. Indicts 50 Colombians for Drug Trafficking
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Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales unveiled today an indictment against 50 leaders in Colombia’s largest rebel group, charging them with sending more than $25 billion worth of cocaine into the United States and other countries. The 54-page federal indictment, which names 50 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is the largest narcotics trafficking indictment ever filed in United States history, Mr. Gonzales said in a news briefing in Washington. It accuses them of being part of a large-scale cocaine trafficking organization and of other crimes, including the murder and kidnapping of Colombian and American citizens. “We believe these men are responsible for not only manufacturing and exporting devastating amounts of cocaine, but enforcing their criminal regime with violence,” Mr. Gonzales said. The individuals named in the indictment have been responsible for overseeing the production of more than 60 percent of the cocaine imported into the United States, Mr. Gonzales said. Three of them are already in custody in Colombia and extradition proceedings have been started, he added. But the remaining 47 are at large, “hiding in the remote reaches of Colombia, surrounded by heavily armed FARC loyalists,” Mr. Gonzales said. It was not immediately clear how the United States would bring the remaining FARC leaders to justice under the indictment, which Mr. Gonzales called the beginning of a “process”. With so many of the suspects at large, the indictment appeared to be more of a statement of intent to act against a group that the State Department has called a terrorist organization. The State Department today said that it was offering more than $75 million in rewards leading to the capture of fugitive FARC leaders, and Mr. Gonzales said there might be American action “in concert with” the Colombian government. “I think that members of the FARC do not want to face American justice,” he said. More : nytimes.com |