Accused Colombian drug lord pleads innocent in US

NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) A Colombian accused of leading a powerful drug cartel pleaded not guilty to US drug conspiracy and importation charges, more than two years after he had been arrested and detained in Cuba.

Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante, also known as ''Rasguno,'' was ordered held without bail in federal court in Long Island, New York, after he was extradited from Colombia late Thursday.

US Attorney in Brooklyn, Roslynn Mauskopf, dubbed him ''the Pablo Escobar of his generation,'' referring to the notorious Colombian drug dealer who was gunned down in 1993.

Gomez Bustamante eluded authorities for two years after his 2002 US indictment before he was arrested in Cuba in 2004 for entering the country on a fake Mexican passport. He was deported to Colombia in February before being extradited to the United States.

Gomez Bustamante, 49, co-headed the Norte del Valle Cartel, which exported tons of cocaine by truck or plane to Colombia's Caribbean and Pacific coasts before loading it onto speedboats and fishing vessels to Mexico, according to his indictment.

In the 1990s, US authorities said the group controlled about half of all the cocaine exported to the United States, including 500 metric tons worth 10 billion dollars from 1990 to 2004.

''The cartel regularly murdered people who failed to pay for drugs or whose loyalty was suspect,'' the indictment said.

It said Gomez Bustamante and eight other alleged cartel members also hired the guerrilla group United Self-Defense Committees of Colombia, to protect its drug routes.

The US government had offered up to 5 million dollars for information leading to the arrest of Gomez Bustamante.

REUTERS MP PM0425