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Words
in the News
Wednesday 31 October 2001
Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find
explanations of difficult words below.
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Colombia hands over alleged drug lord to USA
Summary: After two years of unsuccessful appeals, an alleged drug lord has been handed over by Colombia to the authorities in the U.S. This report from Jeremy McDermott.
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The
News 
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Alejandro Vernal, alias Juvenal, had once been part of the Medellin drug cartel when it was one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the world. But he'd never been one to wear diamond encrusted Rolex's or brandish gold-plated Uzi machine guns, opting rather for a lower profile. It was for this reason he had evaded capture for so long, but his luck ran out in 1999 with his arrest during the joint U.S.-Colombian Operation Millennium. And now, having run out of appeals, he has been handed over to the U.S. drug enforcement agency and taken to Miami to face charges of smuggling up to thirty tonnes of cocaine to America every month.
Last week the U.S. said it wants to extradite not just drugs traffickers but guerrillas and paramilitaries from the three Colombian warring factions on its foreign terrorist organisations list. This, along with an announcement of further help for Colombia (already the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world) threatens to turn the country into another front line in the global war on terrorism.
Jeremy McDermott, BBC, Colombia.
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The
Words
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alias
who also uses the name…
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drug cartel
different illegal drug producing organisations that work together rather than being in competition against each other
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opting
if you opt for something, you choose it instead of something else
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a lower profile
here, a way of behaving that is not as noticeable to the authorities
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evaded
if you evade something, you avoid it
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smuggling
the act of bringing things illegally into one country from another
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to extradite
to have a person sent from one country to another following a legal procedure where they will face prosecution in a court of law
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drugs traffickers
people who supply illegal drugs and arrange for them to be taken to other countries
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warring factions
different groups that are fighting each other
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recipient
a person or here, a country, which receives something
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Read
more about this story |
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Other Words in the News archives
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