FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1995 (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 FORMER BOLIVIAN OFFICER EXTRADITED TO U.S. TO FACE DRUG CHARGES Washington, D.C.-- The Department of Justice announced today that Jose Faustino Rico Toro, a Bolivian citizen and retired colonel of the Bolivian Army, was extradited from Bolivia to the United States to stand trial in federal court in Miami, Florida on cocaine trafficking charges. Colonel Rico Toro, 57, is named in a second superseding indictment filed on March 11, 1994, in the U. S. District Court in Miami, charging him with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine. The extradition of Rico Toro represents the first successful extradition of a Bolivian citizen by the Bolivian government to the United States since July 1992. According to the indictment, Rico Toro and others allegedly conspired to transport quantities of cocaine from Bolivia to the United States beginning about February 1991. Rico Toro was at one time a close assistant to Bolivian dictator Luis Garcia Meza. He also attained a brief appointment as Chief of the Bolivian Special Anti-Narcotics Force (FELCN) under former President Jaime Paz Zamora, a position which he was forced to relinquish because of his suspected ties to drug traffickers. The defendant was arrested by Bolivian authorities with a view toward extradition to the United States on March 22, 1994, in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Exactly one year later, on March 22, 1995, the Bolivian Supreme Court issued its final judgment approving the United States' request for his extradition. Attorney General Janet Reno praised the efforts of the Bolivian government to secure the extradition. "The Department of Justice appreciates the efforts of the Bolivian government to secure the extradition Colonel Rico Toro to the United States. Only through determined cooperation in law enforcement matters and mutual respect for international treaty obligations can we bring such fugitives to justice. "It is the sincere hope of the Justice Department that the case of Colonel Rico Toro will serve as a precedent for future successes in the extradition of fugitives between the United States and Bolivia, Reno said." #### 95-178