Cubans arrest Colombian cocaine kingpin

[quaoar]

So the question is -- Will the Bush Administration lower itself to ask Castro to send this esteemed gentleman to the United States?

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Luis Hernando Bustamante, a leader of Colombia's largest drug cartel that is suspected of smuggling more than $10 billion worth of cocaine into the United States, has been captured in Cuba, Colombia's police chief said Friday.

The Cuban government informed Colombian authorities that Bustamante, better known by his alias “Rasguno,” was detained July 2 after entering Cuba on a false Venezuelan passport, Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro told reporters.

“At this moment he is being held by the attorney general in Cuba and we are involved in discussions to bring him back to Colombia,” the police chief said. “He is one of the biggest Colombian narco-traffickers.”

There was no immediate confirmation from Cuba's communist government, which has not reported on the arrest in its official media.

Bustamante is among the top leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel, which supplanted the Medellin and Cali drug organizations in the early 1990s and is the source of as much as 60 percent of the U.S. cocaine supply, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

U.S. officials have offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Bustamante's capture.

[Desperadoe]

1. You got a link?

Or did you just forget to post it?

[quaoar]

2. Sorry. Here it is

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/07/09/cocaine_kingpin_captured/index.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. What a coup!

Here's a press release from May on Bustamante, and others. I might add, Cuba has been offering from AGES ago to work with the U.S. in drug investigations and arrests, but noooooooooo.

Cuba was slammed down hard by the _Bush administration for daring to bring it up.

Contact:
Robert Nardoza
U.S. Attorney's Office

[phone]

PRESS RELEASE

Indictments Charging Leaders of the Norte Valle Colombian Drug Cartel Unsealed


ROSLYNN R. MAUSKOPF, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, MARTIN D. FICKE, Special Agent-in-Charge, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, New York, NANCY J. JARDINI, Chief, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and ANTHONY P. PLACIDO, Special Agent-in-Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, New York, announced today the unsealing of two indictments in New York charging LUIS HERNANDO GOMEZ BUSTAMANTE, ARCANGEL DE JESUS HENOA MONTOYA and WILMER VARELA, leaders of the notorious Norte Valle Cartel (the "NVC") in Colombia, with drug trafficking and money laundering. Earlier today, Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT announced the filing of a national indictment in Washington, D. C., identifying the NVC as a racketeering enterprise and charging nine defendants, including BUSTAMANTE, HENAO MONTOYA and VARELA, with violations of the RICO statute. (See attached national press release.)

The New York indictment targets the massive influx of drugs to the United States, and, in particular, the New York metropolitan area. The national RICO indictment, in which the Eastern District of New York is a participant, targets the corruption and violence originating in Colombia that permitted the flow of these drugs into the United States. Together, the Department of Justice and the United States Attorneys' Offices in Brooklyn, Miami and Manhattan are bringing all of their resources and efforts to bear on disrupting the flow of narcotics into the United States.

The first New York indictment charges BUSTAMANTE with operating a Continuing Criminal Enterprise in connection with his role as one of the leaders of the NVC, a violent international cocaine organization headquartered in the Northern Valle del Cauca region, near Colombia's west coast. This indictment also charges co-defendant HENAO MONTOYA with drug trafficking and money laundering. The charges against HENAO MONTOYA were unsealed on January 14, 2004 after he was expelled from Panama to the United States. The second New York indictment, also unsealed today, charges VARELA, a leader of the NVC responsible for the cartel's security and enforcement, with drug trafficking. (1) BUSTAMANTE and VARELA are fugitives in Colombia.

The two New York indictments are the product of a long term investigation conducted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York ("EDNY"), United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") New York and Bogota offices, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") and the Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") New York, Miami, Panama and Bogota offices.
(snip/...)

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2004may6a.htm

[Vogon_Glory]

5. The Cubans Have Reason To Act Against The Narcotraficantes

The Cubans have good reason to act against the cocaine cartels. Should the travel ban and the trade embargo be lifted, Cubans and the Cuban government would very quickly begin to feel the financial blandishments and political and economic pressure from the drug smugglers to stand aside and let Cuba become a transit point for smuggling from Colombia and other places in the Andes to the USA.

The cocaine cartels are going to be a continuing challenge for almost any post-Castro Cuban regime--continuing state socialist, triumphant returning reactionaries, or a more open social-democratic regime led by freely-elected Cuban island patriots with a much larger private sector.

The narcotics traffickers can overwhelm or even take over smaller, weaker states, even ones that don't produce drugs themselves. Witness Guatemala, which is now being challenged by the cocaine smugglers, due in no small part to US indifference and neglect after the end of the long-running civil war. Guatemala is too small, too weak, too disorganized, and too impoverished to face the challenge of heavily-armed, well-organized, well-financed drug cartels.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Priceless! See this Miami Herald article from May:

Posted on Fri, May. 07, 2004




COLOMBIAN DRUGS


U.S.: Indictments a blow to cartel

U.S. officials said they struck a crippling blow against Colombia's largest drug cartel, indicting and searching for nine leaders as Colombia seized more of the group's property.

BY FRANK DAVIES

[e-mail]


WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft Thursday announced the indictment of nine top leaders of Colombia's largest drug cartel, responsible for up to half of all the cocaine smuggled into the United States, according to top officials.

The racketeering and smuggling indictments and the continuing manhunt for top drug traffickers will cripple the Norte del Valle cartel, Ashcroft and drug enforcement officials said.

''We are disabling the single largest source of cocaine to the United States,'' Ashcroft said, after the indictments were unsealed in Washington. He also conceded that some of the ringleaders ``will be difficult to apprehend.''

The cartel exported more than 1.2 million pounds of cocaine since 1990 through Mexico into the United States, worth more than $10 billion, the indictments say.

That total is ''roughly equivalent to the combined budgets of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Prisons,'' said Karen Tandy, DEA chief.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/8610423.htm?ERIGHTS=44795714900605653miami:&KRD_RM=3mkmlmmlnkjppmjjjjjjjjjsko|

On edit, adding:

Luis Hernando Gomez-Bustamante (aka "Rasguno") is a major North Valle trafficker closely aligned with the Henao-Montoya Brothers. Although they have worked together for decades, Gomez runs a separate and distinct criminal organization. He owns cocaine HCl conversion laboratories in the Valle Del Cauca region, many of which are concealed on his farms. He also is involved in smuggling cocaine to the U.S. via aircraft. Gomez is wanted on drug trafficking charges in the United States.
(snip)

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_hr/ct980226.htm

[Concordance]

6. I noticed the fas.org link....

fas.org is a notorious and xenophobic group. They spread disinformation and biased propaganda. They pretend to be a group unbiased intellectuals while they are nothing of the sort.

[Jack_DeLeon]

7. Very nice.

I've heard that Cuba usually deals with drug trafficers by executing them.

However since they are talking about extriditing him I guess he was fortunate enough not to actually be taking drugs through Cuba on this particular trip.