The Associated Press
MIAMI- The son of an alleged Colombian drug kingpin pleaded not guilty Wednesday at his first appearance in U.S. court on drug trafficking charges, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
William Rodriguez Abadia was ordered held without bond by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert L. Dube a day after he turned himself in to U.S. authorities in Panama and was then flown to Miami.
Rodriguez Abadia faces drug trafficking, money laundering, obstruction of justice and racketeering conspiracy charges. The charged conspiracy is one of the largest narcotics and money laundering organizations ever prosecuted in the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Rodriguez Abadia had allegedly taken over daily operations of the notorious Cali cartel after his father and uncle _ the alleged cartel co-founders _ were arrested in 1995, according to U.S. authorities.
Rodriguez Abadia’s father, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, and his uncle, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, are also in prison in Miami.
According to an indictment, the three men and eight others conspired to import more than 200,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United States from 1990 until July 2002. The indictment said they imported and distributed cocaine hidden within concrete posts, frozen vegetables, pumpkins, lumber, ceramic tile, coffee, and chlorine cylinders.
Rodriguez Abadia decided to surrender because an injury sustained when he was shot by rival drug smugglers in a restaurant five years ago had continued to aggravate him, his attorney Jorge Luis Gutierrez has said.
He had been on the run from U.S. authorities since 2003 when a Miami court indicted him on trafficking cocaine and issued an extradition order.
“After three years of hiding he had to resolve the situation,” Gutierrez has said.
The Cali cartel allegedly made more than $2 billion (euro1.65 billion) in profits by smuggling an estimated 250 tons of cocaine into the United States over two decades, prosecutors have said.