Colombia extradites cocaine lord "Scratch" to U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Colombia extradites cocaine lord "Scratch" to U.S.
Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:22PM EDT

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia extradited a top cocaine trafficker to the United States on Thursday to face trial, hoping that testimony he gives will help dismantle the Andean country's toughest drug cartel.

A handcuffed Luis Hernando Gomez, known as "Scratch," boarded his plane wearing a bullet-proof vest to ward off any last-minute attacks from fellow traffickers or corrupt politicians who fear what he might tell U.S. prosecutors.
(snip)

Authorities have Gomez's personal computer, which he said contains files outlining his links with local politicians. He says he "managed" several members of Colombia's Congress and also had eight town mayors on his payroll.

"That computer is going to do a lot of damage," he said in a March newspaper interview. Gomez, who paid right-wing paramilitary militias to protect his smuggling routes, was deported from Cuba in February after trying to enter the island with a fake Venezuelan passport.




Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1933600020070719?pageNumber=1

[Ian David]

1. No relation to "Screech"?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombia extradites kingpin "Rasguño" —thanks to Cuba!

Colombia extradites kingpin "Rasguño" —thanks to Cuba!
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 07/20/2007 - 01:42.
Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante—known as "Rasguño," or "Scratch"—alleged head of Colombia's Norte del Valle cocaine cartel, has been extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. He was flown by helicopter July 19 from the Combita maximum security prison to an air base near Bogota, where he was turned over to DEA agents. Norte del Valle rose to become Colombia's most powerful narco mafia after the dismantling of the Medellin and Cali cartels in the 1990s. Colonel Cesar Pinzon, head of Colombia's Judicial Police (DIJIN), called Gomez the "capo of capos." The DEA says he was the source up to 60% of all cocaine consumed in the US. Gomez got his nickname when he laughed off a bullet wound to his cheek as "just a scratch." He was first arrested in Cuba in July 2004 after entering on a false passport, and returned to Colombia six months ago. (BBC, July 20)

Bogota's El Tiempo reported at the time of Rasguño's arrest in Cuba that he had faked his own death in a bogus FARC guerilla roadside assassination in his turf of Valle del Cauca department when the Colombian authorities were closing in on him. He sought refuge in Cordoba department at the clandestine base of his friend, the disappeared paramilitary boss Carlos Castaño. Cooperating with the paras, Rasguño had waged a "war of extermination" against the forces of FARC Western Front commander "Pablo Catatumbo," who he accused of being behind the March 16, 2002 assassination of Archbishop Isaías Duarte.

From Cordoba, Rasguño sought the aid of business associates in Mexico, who arranged for a forged passport, with which he traveled to Havana via Caracas, intending to continue on to Mexico. Mexican authorities are trying to determine which of the country's three top cartels his accomplices were affiliated with—the Tijuana, Juarez or Gulf.

http://www.ww4report.com/node/4246



El capo colombiano Luis Hernando Gómez Bustamante, alias "Rasguño", al momento de su deportación proveniente de Cuba.