Colombian Paramilitary Leader Extradited to the United States to Face U.S. Drug Charges

The U.S. Department of Justice reports in its press release (quotation, not an independent finding): “WASHINGTON – Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, a/k/a "El Mellizo," was extradited today from Colombia to the United States to face narcotics trafficking charges, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). According to the indictment, Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, together with his twin brother Victor, led a major Colombian narcotics trafficking organization known as "the Twins" or "Los Mellizos" Organization. Victor Mejia-Munera was killed in April 2008 in a gun battle with the Colombian military. Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera was also allegedly a leader of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a Colombian right-wing paramilitary and drug-trafficking organization, designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, the alleged leader of the Bloque Arauca of the AUC, is an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)-designated Consolidated Priority Organizational Target (CPOT). According to the indictment, returned in the District of Columbia on Jan. 29, 2004, Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera and his organization were responsible for exporting multi-thousand kilogram quantities of cocaine from Colombia to Central America, Mexico and the United States from January 1994 to January 2004. Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera is charged in the indictment with conspiracy to import five kilograms or more of cocaine into the United States and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute five kilograms or more of cocain”