Americas News

US wastes no time in bringing Colombian drug lord before court

May 8, 2008, 6:07 GMT

Washington - US law enforcement officials opened the prosecution of Carlos Mario Jimenez, hours after the accused Colombian drug trafficker was extradited and delivered to the United States. Jimenez, also known as Macaco, made his initial court appearance in Washington Wednesday, the US Justice Department said in a statement. He faces charges of dealing and exporting cocaine in the United States and abetting a terrorist organization, the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary force, in which he allegedly was a leader. US law enforcement officials said that at the request of the Colombian government, Jimenez would not face life in prison but rather a 20-year sentence if found guilty. The suspect also faces federal charges in Florida, including money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine on board a vessel inside US waters. As an accused AUC leader, Jimenez commanded about 7,000 armed combatants and controlled 'large areas where cocaine was produced,' law enforcement officials said in their indictment. He was responsible for exporting 'thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Central America, Mexico and the United States,' they charged. Jimenez's extradition was the subject of legal challenges and demands by some Colombian authorities that he pay reparations before being extradited. Shortly after Colombia's Supreme Court overruled all objections, Jimenez was taken out of the Combita top security prison in the central Colombian province of Boyaca, flown by helicopter to a military airfield in Bogota and whisked away by officers of the US Drug Enforcement Administration Shortly after the extradition, Colombia's attorney general launched procedures to confiscate 55 assets, including 25 buildings and 23 motor vehicles, registered in the names of several relatives of Jimenez. The assets, along with money and jewels that were also seized, have an estimated total value of 20 million dollars. Colombian Interior and Justice Minister Carlos Holguin said the extradition was swift because of Jimenez's record. President Alvaro Uribe signed the final extradition documents. Jimenez demobilized with more than 31,000 other AUC members as part of peace negotiations between the paramilitary group and the government that resulted in the arrest of AUC bosses. Maximum penalties of eight years in prison were established for the AUC commanders who surrendered - Jimenez among them - and the authorities committed themselves not to extradite them to the United States for drug trafficking. However, the Colombian government later excluded Jimenez, arguing that he continued to commit crimes from prison. The exclusion included the possibility of extradition and penalties of up to 40 years in jail in Colombia.

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