US OFFICIAL: MORE DRUGS IN COLOMBIA

With Washington set to deepen its involvement in Colombia's anti-drug
efforts, a U.S. Embassy official said Wednesday that there are far more
cocaine- and heroin-producing crops growing here than previously believed.

Washington is sending planes and helicopters to Colombia and is considering
giving more aid, atop a $1.3 billion existing package aimed against leftist
rebels and rival right-wing paramilitaries who tax drug crops that are
exported to the United States and elsewhere.

The most recent U.S. estimate, conducted at the end of last year, showed
336,400 acres of coca -- the prime ingredient of cocaine -- were being
cultivated. In addition, Colombian police say 15,300 acres were being used
to grow poppy, from which heroin is made.

But now drug crops have been found in areas of Colombia where none were
believed to have existed before -- in eastern Vichada state and north, in
Arauca state, among other places.

"We've underestimated the coca in Colombia. Everywhere we look there is
more coca than we expected," the U.S. Embassy official told a small group
of American journalists on condition of anonymity.

The training of 3,000 Colombian army counternarcotics troops by U.S. Green
Berets in southern Colombia was completed last May. But plans are
envisioned to expand the training to more Colombian soldiers in smaller
batches in other parts of the country, the official said.

Critics of Washington's aid say the United States is being sucked into
another war, as in Vietnam or El Salvador. The official said the U.S.
Congress would be advised if any expanded troop training were to occur but
its approval would not have to be obtained.

It is unclear by how much the original drug-crop estimates may be short. Of
the heroin crops, the official said: "There is more out there than we can
find right now." The official said a very pure grade of Colombian heroin
has been arriving in the United States, particularly New York and Philadelphia.

The belief that there are more drug crops than previously estimated means
more work for U.S.-trained Colombian army troops and American crop-duster
pilots contracted by the State Department.

The U.S. Embassy official said the pace of fumigation will pick up "very
dramatically" and that a leveling off of drug cultivation in Colombia can
be expected in 18 months.

The anti-drug offensive is aimed primarily at cutting into the main source
of revenue of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

Washington made a clear sign Tuesday that U.S. participation will continue
when the House approved $676 million to fight drugs and advance economic
and political stability in Colombia and in its neighboring countries.

The first of dozens of new combat helicopters provided under the aid
package will be arriving on Saturday from the United States, the U.S.
Embassy said. Fourteen more U.S. crop dusters will also be arriving
starting in September, which will more than double the current fleet in
Colombia by next March.