Top Colombian drug trafficker to sell out former partners to US authorities

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Top Colombian drug trafficker to sell out former partners to US authorities

Colombia has extradited to the US one of the "Twins", a powerful drugs trafficker, who has vowed to cooperate fully with the justice system and sell out his former partners and the members of the security forces who helped him move hundreds of tons of cocaine.

By Jeremy McDermott in Medellin
Last Updated: 7:11AM GMT 05 Mar 2009



Miguel Angel Mejia: If Mr Mejia does give up all he learned in more
than two decades in the bowels of the Colombian underworld, the
implications could be dramatic for cocaine smuggling
Photo: REUTERS

"He has told me that he wants to fully cooperate with the justice system," said Angélica Mari­a Marti­nez, a lawyer for Miguel Angel Mejia, who is now on US soil awaiting trail on drugs trafficking charges.

If Mr Mejia does give up all he learned in more than two decades in the bowels of the Colombian underworld, the implications could be dramatic for cocaine smuggling. Miguel and his twin brother, Victor, whose organisation became known as the "Twins Cartel", worked their way up the criminal ladder, starting as assassins, then specialising in moving large cocaine shipments by sea, into the US and into Europe via Albania.

The Twins were largely unknown until 2001, when $35 million (£24 million) in cash was found in two of their flats in Bogota. The Twins then bought their way into the illegal Right-wing paramilitary United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (known as the AUC), setting up a private army and a fiefdom in the eastern province of Arauca, astride the strategic smuggling route into Venezuela.


Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/colombia/4940623/Top-Colombian-drug-trafficker-to-sell-out-former-partners-to-US-authorities.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombian ex-paramilitary head extradited to US

Colombian ex-paramilitary head extradited to US
Published: Thursday 05 March 2009 18:05 UTC
Last updated: Thursday 05 March 2009 18:05 UTC

Colombia has extradited a former leader of the paramilitary movement the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) to the United States on drugs and money laundering charges. The extradition of Ever Veloza, known as "HH", who has admitted involvement in some 3,000 killings while heading the umbrella organisation set up to counter left-wing guerrilla groups, has angered families of the victims. They feel that hundreds of murders and kidnappings will now go unsolved.

Human rights campaigners say the extradition of Veloza means the whereabouts of mass graves may never be found. President Alvaro Uribe has been a loyal ally in helping the United States to fight drug trafficking in the world's leading cocaine producer.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6203269/Colombian-exparamilitary-head-extradited-to-US

[reg373]

2. milioniare twins

-- The Twins were largely unknown until 2001, when $35 million (£24 million) in cash was found in two of their flats in Bogota. The Twins then bought their way into the illegal Right-wing paramilitary United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (known as the AUC), setting up a private army and a fiefdom in the eastern province of Arauca, astride the strategic smuggling route into Venezuela. --


Only Hugo Chavez, earns more than that...

[Judi Lynn]

3. Where did that come from? Are you feeling O.K.?

Not the most logical response to a story about a death squad fascist asshole who's connected to at least 3,000 murders of "leftists" in Colombia.

Of course this is news which is music to the ears of drooling scum sucking idiots, hearing 3,000 suspected leftists may have been tortured with the ever-popular para chainsaws, then thrown into mass graves.

[Bacchus39]

5. he's in jail. sounds good to me. you would prefer he not be??

n/t

[Peace Patriot]

4. Um, this is COLOMBIA, the fascist government/military on whom the Bushwhacks larded

$6 BILLION of our tax dollars in military aid, so they can slaughter union leaders, political leftists, small peasant farmers, human rights workers and others, with impunity, via their well-larded rightwing death squads.

What has this to do with Venezuela, except that assassination and destabilization plots against Venezuela's democratic government are hatched in Colombia?

You want to give a figure about what Venezuela's president earns? You know something about it. Do tell.

You comment wins the prize for the most idiotic comment of the anti-leftist, anti-democratic, anti-Chavez posters at DU.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Colombia: 'Drug Lords' Getting Free Pass on Worse Crimes?

Published on Saturday, March 7, 2009 by Inter Press Service
Colombia: 'Drug Lords' Getting Free Pass on Worse Crimes?

by Ali Gharib

WASHINGTON - Yet another of Colombia’s top paramilitary leaders was extradited to the U.S. Thursday to be brought up on drug trafficking charges despite the objections of some rights groups and questions raised by Colombian politicians visiting Washington.

Éver Veloza García was put on a plane for New York by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, making him the 15th high-ranking paramilitary leader to be extradited.

After decades of violent conflict, some of those active in Colombian affairs worry that the singular focus of the U.S. on prosecuting drug crimes could prevent the truth from coming out about human rights abuses, the paramilitaries’ collusion with the government, and answers to questions about the locations of mass graves and stolen lands.

Being in U.S. custody cuts off the paramilitary leaders from Colombian access, and some observers suspect that, amid a political scandal connecting his supporters to the paramilitaries, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe may be whitewashing the record.

"A lot of the truth about Colombia’s conflict left the country when these guys were extradited," said Adam Isaacson of the Centre for International Policy (CIP), noting that while other Colombians have tried to gain access to the men, Uribe’s diplomatic corps have "not been asking about any of this."

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/07-7

[Fumesucker]

7. Someone else will take his place before his seat gets cold..

And everyone involved knows it, it's as inevitable as gravity.

There is only one way to put the illegal traffickers out of business permanently.