FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2007 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Leader of Norte Valle Colombian Drug

Cartel Extradited to United States
WASHINGTON – Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante, also known as “Rasguno,”
one of the leaders of the Norte Valle Colombian Drug Cartel, has been extradited
from Colombia to the United States to face charges in the Eastern District of New
York of running a continuing criminal enterprise and importing into the United
States and distributing more than 150 kilograms of cocaine, the Department of
Justice announced today.

Gomez-Bustamante also faces racketeering charges in a multi-district indictment

pending in Washington, D.C., resulting from an investigation conducted by the U.S.
Attorneys’ Offices in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, the Narcotics
and Dangerous Drug Section of the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Gomez-Bustamante arrived in New York last night, in a U.S. Customs and Border
Protection, Air and Marine Unit aircraft, accompanied by special agents of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). His arraignment is scheduled for
12:00 p.m. today at the federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., before U.S. District
Judge Joanna Seybert of the Eastern District of New York.

Gomez-Bustamante had been a fugitive since Oct. 10, 2002, the date on which he
was first indicted in the Eastern District of New York. Shortly after his indictment,
the State Department offered an award of up to $5 million for information leading
to Bustamante’s apprehension. On July 2, 2004, Cuban law enforcement officials
detained Bustamante after he attempted to enter that country on a false Mexican
passport. He remained in Cuban custody until Feb. 8, 2007, when he was deported
from Cuba to his native Colombia. On July 13, 2007, the Colombian government
granted the U.S. request to extradite Bustamante to face the charges filed against
him in the Eastern District of New York and in Washington, D.C.

According to the indictments previously filed in the Eastern District of New York
and the racketeering indictment filed in Washington, D.C., Gomez-Bustamante
worked with several Colombian drug transportation specialists and sent multi-ton
shipments of cocaine from Colombia and other locations in South America to the
Valle del Cauca region. The cartel used trucks and airplanes to transport the cocaine
to the Pacific Coast port city of Buenaventura, and from there, used Mexican
transportation groups to ship the cocaine to Mexico via speed boats, fishing vessels,
and other maritime conveyances, for ultimate delivery to the United States. The
indictment alleges that, between 1990 and the present, the Norte Valle Cartel
exported more than 1.2 million pounds – or 500 metric tons – of cocaine, worth in
excess of $10 billion, from Colombia to the United States. The cartel members
allegedly employed violence and brutality to further the organization’s goals,
including the murder of rivals, individuals who failed to pay for cocaine, and
associates who were suspected to be working as informants for law enforcement. As
alleged in Gomez-Bustamante’s indictment, the cartel members relied on the
Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a terrorist paramilitary organization, to
protect the cartel’s drug routes, its drug laboratories, and its members and
associates. The AUC is one of 42 foreign terrorist organizations listed by the U.S.
State Department.

Ten additional leaders and high-ranking members of the Norte Valle Cartel have
been prosecuted in the Eastern District of New York in recent years, four of whom
have been convicted on felony narcotics offenses and are awaiting sentence.

“Gomez-Bustamante’s extradition is a blow to the leaders of international drug

cartels who once thought they could never face justice in the United States,” said
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “The cooperation of the Colombian
government in extraditing alleged drug lords and the tireless work of U.S.
prosecutors and federal agents in pursuing cases against them has helped in our
efforts to target the Norte Valle and other cartels, and to cut off the flow of illegal
drugs from Colombia to the United States.”

“Gomez-Bustamante is the ‘Pablo Escobar’ of his generation – a violent and

ruthless drug trafficker whose organization flooded our streets with cocaine,” stated
U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf of the Eastern District of New York. “The
prosecution of the leaders of his cartel, culminating in the defendant’s extradition,
has brought low one of the largest drug organizations in the world. This long-term
investigation and resulting prosecutions demonstrate our ongoing commitment to
bring international drug traffickers to justice.” Ms. Mauskopf thanked the
Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the El
Dorado Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Colombian
government for its assistance in this case.

“Gomez-Bustamante was a top member of an organization that controlled roughly

50 percent of the cocaine shipped to the United States in the 1990s and was
responsible for countless murders and a reign of terror extending from Colombia to
the United States,” said Julie Myers, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “ICE agents in the United States and our
Attaché in Colombia worked hand-in-glove with Colombian law enforcement
officials, our partners in the DEA and the Justice Department to bring Gomez to
justice.”
“Global criminal organizations that flood American streets with deadly contraband
spread violence in our neighborhoods and around the globe. They exploit U.S.
financial systems to cleanse their dirty money and violate U.S. borders with their
smuggling enterprises,” said New York ICE Special Agent-in-Charge Peter Smith.
“This clearly represents a threat to America’s homeland and his arrest and
extradition to the U.S. reflect a great triumph and extraordinary teamwork with our
domestic and international law enforcement partners.”

Gomez-Bustamante’s arrest and extradition to the Eastern District of New York are
the result of a lengthy investigation beginning in the mid-1990s that was conducted
by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the El Dorado
Task Force, an ICE-led anti-money laundering task force in New York City, ICE
agents in Colombia, and Colombian law enforcement authorities, with the assistance
of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Internal Revenue Service – Criminal
Investigations. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida also
assisted in the investigation, and the Office of International Affairs of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division helped facilitate the extradition of Gomez-
Bustamante.

In the mid-1990s, the El Dorado Task Force began investigating storefront money
remitter businesses in Queens, N.Y. Three of those transmitting businesses were
owned by Juan Albeiro Monsalve, who was the cartel’s principal drug distributor in
the New York area and was directly responsible for distributing thousands of
kilograms of cocaine into New York City, laundering more than $70 million, and
ordering multiple homicides. Monsalve pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of
New York to drug trafficking and murder, and on May 3, 2002, was sentenced to a
term of life imprisonment. The investigation of Monsalve and related cases revealed
the structure of the Norte Valle Cartel and ultimately led to the indictment of
Bustamante in the Eastern District of New York.

The charges announced today are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed
innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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