Drug kingpin extradited

last updated 8 January 2015

Bogotá

Colombia this week sent a drug lord whose organization allegedly once produced 80 percent of the world’s cocaine to face justice in Miami. Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, nicknamed “the Chess Player” for his shrewdness, founded the Cali drug cartel, which in 1995 made $8 billion in profits. Michael Garcia, an assistant Homeland Security secretary, said Orejuela was “the highest-level drug trafficking figure to ever occupy a U.S. prison cell.” Colombian police arrested him in a 1995 raid on his luxury apartment. Orejuela insisted his trial in the U.S. would finally let him prove his innocence. “I feel like a new man,” he said.