(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-09 09:58

RIO DE JANEIRO - Resembling a luxury version of a second-hand garage sale, Brazil's Inland Revenue Service Tuesday began to sell off the personal belongings of the Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, seized when the cartel leader was arrested in August 2007.

The sale was to take place at the Jockey Club in the city of Sao Paulo, and the items will be sold with discounts of at least 50 percent of their original price.

The items range from Louis Vuitton and Fendi bags to TV sets, including DVD players, furniture, perfumes, coffee machines and bed sheets.

Some 4,000 items, such as 260 pairs of shoes for women, which probably belonged to Abadia's wife, 25 TV sets and 58 pairs of sunglasses, and Abadia's socks and underpants were on sale, for one real (0.59 US dollar) each.

The organizers expect to collect up to four million reais (2.35 million dollars) from the sale.

Abadia's most valuable belongings in Brazil were left out of the sale. Items like SUVs, an imported refrigerator, hundreds of classy wristwatches and pens will be auctioned Wednesday.

In March, the Brazilian court authorized the extradition of Abadia to the United States, where he is charged with drug-trafficking and 15 murders.

On April 1, he was sentenced in Brazil to 30 years in jail, the maximum sentence under local legislation. The Brazilian court determined as a condition to extradite the drug lord that the US court does exceed that maximum.