The Criminal Justice System of Colombia

For offenses committed before that date, Colombian courts would hear the cases. As a result, the cartel members faced strike terms in Colombian prisons, contrasted with potential career sentences in the United States (Ambrus "Columbia," A4).

Critics derided the law as an attempt to please two the United States and medicate traffickers, largely failing at the former. Enrique Parejo, a former justice minister with strong anti-drug credentials, said, "I don't debate this government has the will to extradite Colombian citizens" (Ambrus "Columbia," A4). At the time, closely of the Cali cartel's leaders already resided in Colombian jails, serving ignitor sentences while continuing to operate their drug business. This law insured person that they would never do hard time in the U.S. Moreover, the Americans pretend that the law might be applied to non-Colombians, which could make the body politic a fork outn for international criminals (Constantine, International).

At the very least, Colombia transposed a 1991 law that had barred the extradition of Colombian citizens under either circumstances. The impact of that change, and the Colombian commitment to extradition, cannot be assessed for many more than years, after American authorities build new cases against drug kingpins and then seek to extradite them from Colombia.

At the same time, however, Colombia did bestow some steps directed at weakening the cartels. constabulary 365 made m sensationy-laundering a crime, with penalties no

In addition, the Colombians have forged links with organized crime in Nigeria and Sicily. The Colombian drug cartels trade cocaine with the Nigerians for heroin, allowing the Colombians to open up a lucrative new heroin trade in North America and the Nigerians to sell cocaine in Europe. Meanwhile, the Colombians partnered with the Sicilian Mafia in an attempt to break into the European grocery (Williams).

There can be no doubt, though, that working as a law officer in Colombia qualifies as one of the world's most dangerous occupations. In 1997, 160 members of the Colombian interior(a) Police were killed in the line of duty, most while engaged in anti-drug operations (Constantine International).

In 1995, the anti-drug police were attacked without provocation 36 times, resulting in the deaths of 22 agents and injuries to 46 others. In addition, traffickers and guerrillas downed four police planes and helicopters and destroyed a police base in the Colombian city of Miraflores, a hotbed for drug trafficking (Eaton A1).

The European market presented challenges as well as opportunities for the Colombian drug cartels. Unlike the Americans, the Europeans have not been vigilant in their anti-drug efforts. However, in Europe, the Colombians had a ofttimes higher profile than in the polyglot U.S., and a unattackable portion of those arrested for drug trafficking were Colombian. So the drug cartels turned to the Sicilian Mafia and its well-established distribution channels. Soon the alliance evolved into money laundering, some other specialty of the la cosa nostra. For the Sicilians, an alliance with the Colombians gave them the opportunity to regain dirt lost to the Asians in the heroin market (Williams).

For most inhabitants of Colombia's prisons, though, life is very harsh. Colombia's prisons are overcrowded, so bad that most inmates advert only 80 percent of their term, at most. Conditions are in force(p) for violence, a daily occurrence. Lax security also leaves th
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