Extradition of Former Colombian Crime Boss and Six Other Defendants Authorized
By Dialogo March 16, 2011
The Colombian government has authorized the extradition to the United States of Phanor Arizabaleta, a former crime boss with the Cali cartel, and six other Colombians suspected of drug-trafficking offenses, the administration announced in a press release on 14 March.
Arizabaleta was a cocaine-trafficking partner of the brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, bosses of the once-powerful mob organization during the 1980s and 1990s.
The two brothers are now serving thirty-year prison sentences in the United States.
Arizabaleta was previously sentenced in Colombia to twenty-eight years in prison for drug trafficking, but his extradition to the United States is in relation to offenses committed subsequent to that sentence.
In addition to Arizabaleta, Ana Cecilia Tamayo West, Julio Eduardo Chaparro Escobar, John Frank Bonilla Cristancho, Edgar Adenis Solano López, José Guillermo Gallón Henao, and Saúl Estupiñán Yesquen will be turned over to U.S. judicial authorities, the statement from the presidential press service specified.
In 2010, the Colombian government extradited 168 of its citizens, the majority of them to the United States, according to official figures.
