Drug baron on trial in US

THE founder of a Colombian drug cartel that became the world’s chief supplier of cocaine in the 1990s is set to appear in court in Florida today after being extradited to the US.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, aged 65, landed before dawn on Saturday in a US government plane and was driven to a downtown Miami jail.

Rodriguez Orejuela is charged, along with his brother, Miguel, with running a drug network responsible for producing 80% of the US cocaine supply in the 1990s. The brothers have been jailed in Colombia for nearly a decade.