Reputed Colombian drug lord appears in Miami federal court - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com

Reputed Colombian drug lord appears in Miami federal court - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com: "Marin-Zamora, 48, known in the underworld as ``Beto,'' will have a detention hearing on Friday and arraignment Nov. 1. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
Marin-Zamora is the latest target in a long lineup of major Colombian drug-trafficking defendants to be extradited to Miami over the past three decades. His organization, the North Valley cartel, filled a power vacuum in the '90s left by the fall of the Cali and Medellín cartels, which were shut down by U.S. and Colombian officials.
Marin-Zamora was arrested on Margarita Island, a resort destination in Venezuela, on Thursday. Authorities immediately agreed to turn him over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which has had strained relations with Venezuela in battling the drug cartels in Colombia.
The prisoner transfer was a sign of renewed cooperation between the governments of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and new Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who agreed to restore diplomatic ties in August.
Marin-Zamora was part of the North Valley organization run by Wilber Varela, who was found murdered in 2008. Varela was the North Valley rival of Diego Montoya Sánchez, who in 2009 was sentenced to 45 years in prison in Miami federal court."