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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b>Stand by for news from the FARC
about this outrage which gives license to the u.s. to arrest and
extradite any political prisoner or leftist (in Columbia) and try them,
imprison them. <br><br>
<br>
<a name="stories"></a>News Release <br>
</b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE<br>
March 22, 2006<br>
DEA Public Affairs<br>
202-307-7977</font><font size=3> <br>
<a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr032206ap.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr032206ap.html<br>
</a></font><div align="center">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#000033"><b>United States
Charges 50 Leaders Of Narco-Terrorist FARC In<br>
Colombia With Supplying More Than Half Of The World's Cocaine<br>
</font>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060322184735.029d76e8@freedomarchives.org.0" width=250 height=182 alt="Since 1980, the FARC has kidnapped over 100 individuals and mur">
</b><font size=3><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=1><b>Since 1980, the FARC has kidnapped
over 100 individuals and murdered 13 U.S. citizens, including three U.S.
missionaries who were executed in 1999. <br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>
<a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr032206b.html">FARC Fact
Sheet>></a><br><br>
</b></div>
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)Fifty leaders of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias
de Colombia (the FARC) in Colombia have been indicted on charges of
importing more than $25 billion worth of cocaine into the United States
and other countries, the Department of Justice announced today.<br><br>
“From their jungle hideaway, the FARC uses the drug trade to bankroll
terrorism in Colombia, finance attacks on innocent citizens, and poison
Americans,” said DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy. “Today’s indictment
challenges that lawlessness, and the FARC leadership should prepare to
face the justice that they have long denied to so many.”<br>
</font>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060322184735.029d76e8@freedomarchives.org.1" width=298 height=208 alt="[]">
<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>The one-count indictment,
returned by a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia on March 1, 2006, and unsealed today, names as
defendants 50 leaders of the FARC, a designated foreign terrorist
organization. Three of the charged FARC leaders are currently in custody
in Colombia, and the United States is seeking their extradition on the
charges unsealed today. In addition, the United States Department of
State announced more than $75 million worth of rewards for information
that leads to the capture of the remaining FARC leaders.<br><br>
“This indictment strikes at the very heart of the FARC narcotics
operation that has flooded our communities with cocaine,” said Attorney
General Alberto R. Gonzales. “Because of unprecedented cooperation
between U.S. and Colombian authorities, we are closer than ever before to
reaching our goal of bringing the leaders of this narco-terrorist group
to justice in the United States.”<br><br>
According to the indictment, the FARC currently supplies more than 50
percent of the world’s cocaine and more than 60 percent of the cocaine
that enters the United States. The FARC initially taxed other narcotics
traffickers involved in the manufacture and distribution of cocaine in
areas the FARC controlled, it was charged. Recognizing the increased
profits available, from the 1990s up to the present, the FARC moved to
become directly involved in the production and distribution of cocaine
by, among other criminal activities, setting the prices to be paid to
farmers across Colombia for cocaine paste, the raw material used to
produce cocaine, and transporting cocaine paste to jungle laboratories
under FARC control where it was converted into ton quantities of finished
cocaine and then shipped out of Colombia to the United States and other
countries. Recognizing that cocaine was the “lifeblood” of the FARC, the
charged FARC leaders collected millions of dollars in cocaine proceeds
and used the money to purchase weapons for the FARC’s terrorist
activities against the government and people of Colombia, it was
charged.<br>
</font>
<img src="http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr032206a_3.jpg" width=175 height=131 alt="These photos show the remnants of a FARC cocaine lab which was">
<font size=3>
<img src="http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr032206a_4.jpg" width=175 height=131 alt="These photos show the remnants of a FARC cocaine lab which was">
<img src="http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr032206a_5.jpg" width=175 height=131 alt="These photos show the remnants of a FARC cocaine lab which was"><br>
</font><div align="center"><font face="Verdana" size=1><b>These photos
show the remnants of a FARC cocaine lab which was destroyed by the
Colombian National Police.<br><br>
<br>
</b></font></div>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>According to the indictment, the
charged FARC leaders used terrorism and violence to further the FARC’s
cocaine-trafficking activities. The charged FARC leaders ordered that
Colombian farmers who sold cocaine paste to non-FARC buyers or otherwise
violated the FARC’s strict cocaine policies be murdered, it was charged.
Colombian farmers who violated FARC rules were allegedly shot, stabbed,
or dismembered alive, and the bodies of murdered farmers were cut open,
filled with rocks, and sunk in nearby rivers. The defendants also
allegedly ordered FARC members to kidnap and murder U.S. citizens to
discourage the U.S. government from disrupting the FARC’s
cocaine-trafficking activities. According to the indictment, the charged
FARC leaders authorized their members to shoot down U.S. fumigation
planes, and plotted to retaliate against U.S. law enforcement officers
who were conducting the investigation into the FARC’s narcotics
activities.<br><br>
<div align="center"><b>United States Seeks to Extradite Three FARC
Leaders Currently In Colombian Custody<br><br>
</b></div>
Attorney General Gonzales also announced today that the United States
will immediately seek to extradite three of the charged FARC leaders who
are currently in custody in Colombia. JORGE Enrique Rodriguez Mendieta,
a/k/a "Ivan Vargas," Erminso Cuevas Cabrera, a/k/a
"Mincho," and Juan Jose Martinez Vega, a/k/a "Gentil Alvis
Patino,” a/k/a "Chiguiro,” will each be served with an United States
provisional arrest warrant based on the indictment unsealed today, the
first step in the extradition process. These three defendants led the
FARC’s cocaine-trafficking activities in various ways, as described
below:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>• Jorge Enrique Rodriguez Mendieta, a/k/a “Ivan Vargas,” served as a
member of the FARC’s Estado Mayor or operational leadership council and
as the Front Commander for the FARC’s 24th Front. Rodriguez Mendieta
allegedly directed the purchase of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of
cocaine paste and transmitted billions of Colombian pesos in cocaine
proceeds to other FARC officials. Rodriguez Mendieta is also alleged to
have ordered the murder of at least eight farmers, including several whom
he personally dismembered alive, and to have plotted to retaliate against
United States law enforcement officers who were conducting the
narcotics-trafficking investigation that led to the charges announced
today. Rodriguez Mendieta was arrested by Colombian authorities in late
2004, and is in custody in Colombia.<br><br>
<dd>• Erminso Cuevas Cabrera, a/k/a "Mincho," was a FARC
associate who managed cocaine laboratories for the FARC’s 14th Front.
Cuevas Cabrera allegedly supervised the production and distribution of
hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine. Erminso Cuevas Cabrera is
also alleged to be the brother of charged Estado Mayor member Jose Benito
Cabrera Cuevas, a/k/a "Fabian Ramirez." Cuevas Cabrera was
arrested by Colombian authorities in late 2004, and is in custody in
Colombia.<br><br>
<dd>• Juan Jose Martinez Vega, a/k/a "Gentil Alvis Patino,” a/k/a
"Chiguiro," was a FARC associate who provided large quantities
of arms and ammunition to the FARC in exchange for thousands of kilograms
of cocaine. Martinez Vega was arrested in Venezuela in early 2005 during
the rescue mission of former Detroit Tigers pitcher Ugueth Urbina’s
mother. At the time of his arrest in Venezuela, Martinez Vega was
allegedly in possession of approximately 700 kilograms of cocaine.
Martinez Vega is currently in custody in Colombia. <br><br>
</dl><div align="center">State Department Offers More Than $75 Million In
Rewards For Fugitive FARC Leaders<br>
</b></div>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060322184735.029d76e8@freedomarchives.org.2" width=300 height=225 alt="[]">
</b><font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>The United States Department
of State announced today rewards of more than $75 million for information
leading to the capture of 24 of the FARC leaders charged today.
Specifically, the State Department is offering rewards of up to $5
million for information leading to the arrest of the seven members of the
FARC Secretariat, the ultimate policy and decision-making body of the
criminal enterprise. The State Department also is offering rewards of up
to $2.5 million for information leading to the arrest of seventeen
additional charged FARC leaders who are members of the FARC’s Estado
Mayor or governing council. <br><br>
The investigation culminating in the indictment announced today was led
by the International Narcotics Trafficking Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Southern District of New York, assisted by the Narcotic
and Dangerous Drug Section (NDDS) of the Criminal Division at the
Department of Justice, along with law enforcement officers from the DEA,
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Internal Revenue
Service, working together as part of the New York OCDETF Strike Force
(the “New York Strike Force”). The New York Strike Force is composed of
law enforcement officers from the DEA, ICE, the IRS, the FBI, the New
York City Police Department, the New York State Police, the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The
investigation and prosecution are supported by trial attorneys from the
Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and by the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the District of Colombia. The indictment announced
today resulted from unprecedented cooperation between U.S. law
enforcement officers and Colombian law enforcement authorities.<br><br>
The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations. All
defendants are presumed innocent until and unless convicted in a court of
law.<br><br>
<div align="center">***VIDEO AND PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST<br><br>
<br>
</b></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
</div>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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