Feared warlord extradited to the US from Colombia

Bogota: Colombia extradited one of the Andean country's most feared paramilitary warlords to the United States early on Wednesday to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, the government said.

Carlos Mario Jimenez was flown to Washington, D.C., via Miami on a US Drug Enforcement Administration plane, according to a brief statement from President Alvaro Uribe's office.

It was issued just hours after Colombia's top judicial panel overturned a Supreme Court decision that had temporarily blocked the extradition on the grounds Jimenez's victims might not be compensated if he were allowed to leave the country.

The Supreme Court had ruled in mid-April that Jimenez should not leave Colombia until he has confessed to crimes he is accused of committing as the leader of illegal far-right militias and provided reparations to victims.

On Tuesday, in a victory for the Uribe government, a seven-member panel of the judiciary's high council overturned that decision.

Last year, the Colombian government stripped Jimenez of the benefits of a peace process, including protection from extradition, because it said he was continuing to traffic in drugs and run paramilitary operations from prison.