Colombian cocaine kingpin in US court

MIAMI - Colombian drug boss Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, who along with his brother once controlled much of the world's cocaine trade, was ordered held without bail in his first appearance in a United States court.

Colombia extradited Rodriguez Orejuela to Florida on Friday to face a US indictment, alleging he and his brother, Gilberto, ran a drug trafficking and money laundering operation from the Colombian jail cells where they were serving drug sentences. He joined his brother behind bars in the United States.

The stocky, graying 61-year-old, dressed in prison garb, raised his left hand to signal his presence in court when his name was called out, but said nothing aloud during the brief hearing.

He spent most of his time in court handcuffed to a prisoner sitting beside him, listening through headphones to a Spanish translation of the proceedings.

His arraignment was scheduled for March 28. The formal reading of the charges against him was set at the same time as the arraignment of his brother and before the same judge.

An attorney for Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela told US Magistrate Barry Garber that the former Cali cartel chief had decided not to seek a bail hearing at the moment. Garber agreed and ordered him held as a risk to flee if released on bond.

US prosecutors say the Cali cartel once was responsible for 80 per cent of the cocaine entering the United States. They want to seize more than US$2 ($2.74) billion in unspecified assets they say were the proceeds of drug trafficking.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was sent to Miami in December, becoming the most powerful drug lord ever extradited to the United States by Colombia.

- REUTERS