Colombian authorities last night freed notorious drug trafficker Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela after he had served seven years of a 15 year-sentence.
Rodriguez (63)was one of the heads of the now-defunct Cali drug cartel.
Judge Luz Angela Moncada earlier ruled that Rodriguez had served his time and ordered his immediate freedom. Attempts by the government of President Mr Alvaro Uribe to keep him in prison longer failed.
However, the judge ruled that Rodriguez's brother, Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, will remain in a maximum security prison after being sentenced to four years' imprisonment for attempting to bribe a judge in 1996.
"This is a terrible blow, it is a time of mourning and pain for the image of the country and for the administration of justice in Colombia," Justice and Interior Minister Mr Fernando Londono said.
Deemed by Washington to be two of the world's most powerful cocaine traffickers, the brothers have already served seven years of 15-year prison sentences handed down in 1995.
The brothers were one-time heads of trafficking in the city of Cali, 500 kilometres south of Bogota, which the United States has said is a major source of illicit drugs. Colombia supplies some 80 per cent of the world's cocaine and a large portion of its heroin, according to the US government.
AFP