Colombian Druglord Pleads Guilty

Police officers escort Diego Montoya (c) being extradited to US at military airport in Bogota, 12 Dec 2008The boss of a Colombian drug cartel that smuggled billions of dollarsworth of cocaine into the United States and terrorized people intosilence has pleaded guilty to murder, drug trafficking and racketeeringcharges.

Forty-eight year old Diego Montoya, also known as "DonDiego," made his plea Tuesday in a Miami, Florida courtroom. He willbe sentenced in October and prosecutors are seeking a 45-year prisonterm. Authorities charged him with heading the powerful Norte Valledrug cartel, which rose to become Colombia's most prolific cocainecartel after the demise of the Medellin and Cali cartels in themid-1990s.

Federal officials say at the Norte Valle's peak, thecartel supplied 60 percent of all Colombian cocaine transported to theUnited States. Montoya was arrested in 2007, after an intense manhuntwhich concluded when he was found hiding in a dry riverbed.

TheNorte Valle cartel was a family-run operation. In April, a U.S.District judge sentenced Diego Montoya's younger brother, EugenioMontoya Sanchez to 30 years in prison on charges including conspiracyto import cocaine and obstruction of justice.  

The U.S.government says the cartel used violence and murder to prevent peoplefrom passing information to law enforcement officials and to "instillfear."

Some information for this report was provided by AP.