California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Fugitive Extradited From Paraguay

A man who fled the United States after pleading guilty to participating in an international cocaine ring is back in federal custody after extradition from Paraguay. Marcello Biradelli, a former maitre d’ and son of a San Francisco restaurant owner, was denied bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Claudia Wilken. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January. In 1988, Biradelli agreed to inform on a dozen other defendants in exchange for leniency, but fled after authorities released him without bail pending sentencing. Federal authorities tracked him to Argentina, but could do little to force his extradition since he was an Argentine citizen. But Paraguayan police arrested him at the request of U.S. prosecutors while he was on vacation in that country, which has an extradition treaty with the United States. The discovery of the Mafia ring resulted in arrests in San Francisco, New York, Illinois and Sicily. Eleven of Biradelli’s co-defendants pleaded guilty to cocaine charges and the 12th has died, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Barbara Brennan Silano.