The example of Mexico and Guatemala are very alarming examples of the devastating effects of drug cartel activity.
Mr Renteria, who allegedly headed Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel, was handed over to US officials at Caracas airport.
Police in the United States have arrested 45 people they accuse of belonging to the Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana.
Mexican president Felipe Calderon says plans by a notorious drug cartel for an extravagant party led to the killing of its leader.
In other developments, Colombia's Supreme Court Wednesday opened the way for the extradition of Fabio Ochoa, a major drug kingpin for the Medellin drug cartel.
Henao's brother, Orlando, and her husband, Ivan Urdinola, were considered co-founders of Colombia's Norte del Valle or Northern Valley drug cartel in the late 1980s.
The indictment says one of the accused approached a US informant, who was posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel, to carry out the assassination.
The prosecution had alleged Noriega laundered the 2.3m euros from Colombia's Medellin drug cartel in the late 1980s through the now-defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
With kidnappings, drug cartel shootouts and other violent crime pervasive in parts of Mexico, the tourism industry has taken a hit, although popular destinations like Cancun are so well-protected that problems are rare.
The Farc "may be hard hit militarily and they may fragment, but they will simply turn into the powerful and heavily armed drug cartel in the world" says Juan Gonzalez, a lawyer in Medellin.
Last month an affidavit was filed by an FBI agent in a Texas court raising the possibility that Bank of America accounts were being used to launder money connected to a Mexican drug cartel.
But when Carlos Alberto Renteria, the man accused of heading the Colombian Norte del Valle drug cartel was extradited, he remained silent with his head bowed, denying the cameras the chance to take images of his face.
Pacino and De Palma originally worked together on 1983's Scarface - a remake of a 1930s film - which saw Pacino portray a Cuban refugee who becomes a drug cartel kingpin in the US before his life gradually unravels.
Holder retracted the DOJ's response when whistle-blowers detailed information about the sting operation, run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, that allowed weapons to be purchased illegally in order to track them to senior drug cartel members.
Mexico arrests senior drug cartel member.
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Global intelligence analysts Stratfor say the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel has been expanding into the state and is fighting the Knights Templar cartel for control of the drug routes leading from the Pacific coast inland.
BBC: Mexico vigilantes injure two tourists in Guerrero state
Honduran authorities said the gold-plated rifle had an engraving associated with the Malverde drug gang - which is allegedly connected to Mexico's Zetas cartel.
All three major candidates have vowed to continue to fight drug gangs, but focus more on reducing violence than seizing drugs or arresting cartel leaders.
In other parts of Mexico, where local police offices are short-staffed and poorly equipped to face threats from cartel members, the federal government has used the army and federal police to battle drug traffickers.
Major cartel leaders have been captured, the report says, and the number of annual deaths because of drug-related violence declined from 2011 to 2012.
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