COLOMBIA: AUTHORITIES HAVE EXTRADITED SUSPECTED VENEZUELAN DRUG TRAFFICKER FERNANDO JOSE FLORES

Record ID: 318392

  • Title: COLOMBIA: AUTHORITIES HAVE EXTRADITED SUSPECTED VENEZUELAN DRUG TRAFFICKER FERNANDO JOSE FLORES
  • Date: 26th November 1999
  • Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (NOVEMBER 25, 1999) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ENTRANCE TO THE AIRPORT 0.06 2. MV POLICE WALKING AROUND THE AREA 0.10 3. MV PILOTS STANDING AROUND SPEAKING TO EACH OTHER/POLICE (3 SHOTS) 0.18 4. MV FERNANDO JOSE FLORES, NICKNAMED "FAT MAN", WALKING TOWARDS PLANE, ESCORTED BY POLICE, CARRYING OXYGEN (5 SHOTS) 1.30 5. SLV PLANE TAXIING DOWN RUNWAY 1.47 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 11th December 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Reuters ID: LVACVB7JXZAMH42VJRQGTKW7H7VM
  • Story Text: Colombian authorities have extradited a suspected
    Venezuelan drug trafficker.He could be the key to
    Washington's bid to place Colombia's undisputed cocaine kings,
    the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, on trial in a U.S.court.

    Fernando Jose Flores, nicknamed the "Fat Man", is the
    second alleged drug smuggler extradited this week and is
    accused of shipping more that 3 tonnes of cocaine packed in
    concrete fence posts to Florida.

    He was reputedly a crony of the Rodriguez Orejuelas
    group who are serving time in a Bogota prison since their
    capture in mid-1995.

    Flores said he feared U.S.officials would force him to
    turn evidence against the Rodriguezes, former kingpins of the
    notorious Cali drug mob and once blamed for trafficking 80
    percent of the world's cocaine.

    Flores was bundled aboard a U.S.Drug Enforcement
    Administration (DEA) Lear jet at a Bogota police airport after
    extensive medical checks.Just 5 foot six inches tall but
    weighing some 308 pounds (140 kg), "Fat Man" Flores suffers
    from heart problems.

    Under the watchful gaze of scores of heavily armed
    police, Flores waddled across the runway with tubes from a
    small oxygen canister inserted into his nose to help him
    breathe.He was not handcuffed but police officers gripped
    his arms.

    Colombia banned the extradition of Colombian citizens in
    1991 after Pablo Escobar, late capo of the Medellin cartel,
    waged a bloody campaign of bombings, murders and kidnappings.

    Under intense U.S.pressure, the Congress lifted the ban
    in December 1997 but the measure cannot be applied
    retroactively and only covers crimes committed after that
    date.

    No Colombian had been sent abroad for trial since 1990
    until Sunday's extradition of suspected heroin trafficker
    Jaime Orlando Lara.


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