"He was put on a Miami-bound plane about two weeks after President Bush (news - web sites) visited Colombia to solidify his alliance with President Alvaro Uribe against "narcoterrorists."
Rodriguez Orejuela faces drug trafficking and money laundering charges in Miami, where he was indicted as part of Operation Cornerstone, a federal investigation that began in 1991 and resulted in the seizure of nearly 50,000 kilos of cocaine and $15 million in U.S. currency.
"Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela is alleged to have trafficked in illegal drugs that tear at the fabric of society and draw the innocent away from safe and productive lives," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said in a written statement.
Our President's South American trip still reaping productive benefits Ping.
Ping.
This is largely symbolic though. As the article said, his arrest had little effect on the cocaine market. Cocaine is cheaper and more pure in the U.S. now than it's ever been since the drug became popular here in the seventies and eighties. This guy has already been replaced by other people. That's the way it goes all the way down to the street level addict dealers. The biggest effect on supply and prices is going to come from the massive seizures they sometimes make, not from increasing the number of people they put in prison. They've seized several dozen tons of cocaine headed for this country in the past couple of months. That's what they need to focus on more than anything on the supply side, interdicting the big loads. The demand side is the tougher egg to crack, and reducing demand is more important than reducing supply because demand tends to get met regardless of the efforts we make in reducing supply. That can only be done by continuing to educate young people on the dangers of drugs and making a much better effort to get addicts off of the drugs, especially those who come in contact with our criminal justice system (probably the majority eventually).
As always, the Dominicans retail, the Columbians wholsale.