Colombia has extradited 14 former paramilitary leaders to the US to face Bogey's hamper Garcia's progress ...
Colombian blocks US extradition ... drug trafficking charges.

Officials said the men had failed to abide by a peace deal under which their groups were demobilised.

Under the 2003 pact, the militia leaders were to confess wrongdoing and surrender the proceeds of their crimes.

Colombia's right-wing paramilitaries have been accused of many thousands of killings as well as drug-trafficking and money-laundering.

The latest extraditions come a week after a top paramilitary figure, Carlos Mario Jimenez, was sent to the US.

'Top bosses'

Tuesday's operation saw the 14 men taken to a military base near the capital, Bogota, to be flown to the US and handed over to US Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Among those extradited were Salvatore Mancuso, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo alias Jorge 40, and Diego Fernando Murillo known as Don Berna.

"Most of the top bosses are there," Colombian Interior Minister Carlos Holguin told local radio.

"In some cases they were still committing crimes and reorganising criminal structures."

The US also argues that many former paramilitary leaders continue to direct drug trafficking networks.

Atrocities

The Colombian government last year accused Jimenez, also known as Macaco, of running a criminal empire from prison.

They said he had therefore violated a 2003 peace deal, which obliged paramilitary leaders to surrender and demobilise 31,000 men in exchange for reduced jail terms and extradition protection.

He is to face charges of drug-trafficking and money-laundering in the US.

The paramilitaries were set up and funded by wealthy landowners and drug traffickers to combat left-wing guerrillas.

They have been accused of committing some of the country's worst atrocities.

(BBC)

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