Thursday, January 19, 2012

Extradition Is How Colombia Is Busting Drug Cartels

Police guard alleged members of the 'Loco Barrera' (Crazy Barrera) drug trafficking ring. The U.S. wants them extradited.

How Colombia Is Busting Drug Cartels -- CNN

(CNN) -- Gruesome and seemingly endless accounts of violence in Mexico have obscured one notable bright spot in Latin America's high-stakes struggle with powerful drug gangs. In Colombia, once home to the world's biggest cocaine cartels, new crime organizations are being picked apart with silent efficiency -- aided by Bogota's enthusiastic embrace of extradition.

In recent years, more than 1,300 of Colombia's top crime bosses and their most dangerous enforcers have been sent north to face trafficking charges in the United States, a dramatic turnabout from the 1990s when extradition was outlawed under coercive pressure from the Medellin and Cali cartels.

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My Comment
: The prospect of spending 20 years in a maximum security U.S. prison would give anyone pause. Severe punishment does work, a lesson that other countries battling drug cartels should learn.

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