Colombia extradites drug lord to U.S.

BOGOTA, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Colombia extradited 45-year-old drug trafficker Jorge Ivan Urdinola Perea, alias "La Iguana," to the United States on Tuesday.

Urdinola Perea, wanted by a court in Florida, was transferred from a maximum security prison in Combita, Central Boyaca Province, to the military airport in Colombia's capital Bogota, where he was handed over to the agents of the U.S. anti-drug department.

According to the Colombian police, Urdinola Perea had inherited the businesses of the captured drug baron Diego Montoya, alias "Don Diego," and taken charge of the drug-trafficking in the country's western department of Valle del Cauca.

Moreover, he was the head of the drug organization "Los Machos" and had several drug labs in the western department of Choco.

"A great part of the drugs they produced in those labs was sent to the U.S.," the U.S. side claimed.

Colombia is currently the largest producer and second largest exporter of cocaine in the world.