BY JOHN VALENTI
Newsday Staff Writer
January 19, 2007, 9:20 AM EST
A Colombian man wanted on drug and racketeering and money-laundering
charges filed in New York is facing a possible life sentence in Cuba,
but officials there have refused requests to extradite him.
Hernando Gomez Bustamante is wanted in the U.S. on those charges, which
stem from his alleged role as leader of Colombia's Norte Valle Cartel.
He also is wanted in Colombia and Panama.
But his Miami-based defense lawyer, Oscar Rodriguez, this week told El
Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister paper of The Miami Herald,
that Gomez has been held in Cuba since 2004 when he was arrested at a
Havana airport on charges of carrying a Mexican passport under a false name.
A Cuban prosecutor has recently asked that Gomez be sentenced to life in
prison on that charge, Rodriguez said.
"There's something fishy here," Rodriguez told El Nuevo, adding: "Cuba's
intentions are very dark."
According to documents provided to El Nuevo by Rodriguez indicate
prosecutor Isabel Barzaga of the People's Provincial Tribunal of Havana
is seeking a life sentence for Gomez -- but does not refer to any
charges related to drug-trafficking by him in Cuba. The trial may begin
next month.
The Cuban documents, however, do quote reports from the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration and from the Colombian and Panamanian
governments linking Gomez to drug smuggling in those countries, as well
as Mexico.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-nyncarc0120,0,2990720.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
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