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Panama Hand Colombian Drug Lord Over to U. S. NewsMax.com WiresWASHINGTON - A man accused of being a top Colombian drug kingpin was brought Wednesday from Panama to New York, where he faced charges that he conspired to smuggle cocaine into the United States over more than three years. Authorities said Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya, known as "El Mocho," arrived in New York aboard a Justice Department jet and was taken immediately to a prison cell to await an initial court hearing. He was arrested Saturday in a remote section of Panama, where he owned an estate. Prosecutors described Henao as a top official with the Norte Valle cartel. Authorities believe it is responsible for as much as half of all cocaine imports into the United States from Colombia. Court documents - parts of which were blocked out - indicated Henao and possibly others were the primary targets of an indictment in July 2003 that also sought the seizure of $31 million in property upon conviction. Henao was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to launder money. The indictment also accused Henao of employing members of Colombia's right-wing paramilitary organization, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, to protect its drug routes and drug laboratories. The group has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. "Pushing some 30 to 50 percent of the cocaine hitting American streets, the Norte Valle Cartel shows us that Colombian kingpins still dominate the drug trade," said Michael J. Garcia, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Henao is on the Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers. A department statement once described him as "responsible for huge volumes of drugs that have entered the United States." In January 2003, the Colombian press reported that Leon Montoya, Henao and two other Norte de Valle kingpins offered to surrender to Colombian authorities in exchange for a promise that they would not be handed over to the United States. With the imprisonment of several Cali drug lords in the mid-1990s, Colombia's drug trade was divided up among various smaller organizations, including the Norte de Valle Cartel.
© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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