COLOMBIAN GENERAL CLAIMS PROOF OF REBEL TRAFFICKING

BOGOTA Colombia's military chief of staff General Fernando Tapias said
Monday he has further proof of arms-for-drugs links between leftist rebels
and international cocaine traffickers, after the arrest of 22 people,
including a close ally of a major Brazilian drug lord.

The 3,000 soldiers participating in "Operation Black Cat" also seized 2,812
weapons, 78 vehicles, satellite telephones and 75,000 dollars in cash over
the past several days in jungle areas controlled by the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials FARC.

Authorities said soldiers had destroyed 11 cocaine-producing laboratories
and a rebel camp capable of holding 500 people, and found 10,000 hectares
(24,710 acres) of drug crops.

"One more time we have unveiled the guerrilla-narcotrafficking combination.
The FARC has a coca and cocaine empire (in the Colombian jungle), and from
there cargo planes leave with drugs and return full of arms," Tapias said.

Among those captured in "Operation Black Cat" was Jacqueline Alcantara de
Morais, considered the girlfriend and second-in-command of Brazilian drug
lord Luiz Fernando da Costa, known as Fernandinho Beira Mar.

She and six other Brazilians were caught Thursday near Colombia's border
with Brazil in an area where FARC is known to operate, authorities said.

Colombian military authorities said FARC leader Tomas Molina Caracas has
established an illegal drugs-for-arms operation with links to traffickers
in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, including Fernandinho Beira Mar.

Molina Caracas, also known as "El Negro Acacio," also was accused last year
by Peruvian authorities of negotiating the purchase of 10,000 Kalashnikov
rifles through fugitive ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos.

Colombia is the world's leading producer of cocaine and exports 90 percent
of its annual 520-tonne production to the United States.

The army's operation coincided with the visit to Colombia of US Drug
Enforcement Agency chief Donnie Marshall and a group of US lawmakers
seeking information on Plan Colombia, President Andres Pastrana's peace,
antidrug and economic-development effort.

The United States has pledged 1.3 billion dollars in support for Plan
Colombia, which will cost a total of 7.5 billion dollars.

Colombian and US authorities have claimed the FARC is nothing more than a
drug cartel masquerading as a liberation movement and that the group
shields drug traffickers in the 42,000 square kilometer (16,200 square
mile) demilitarized zone in southern Colombia ceded to them in November
1998 to promote peace.

Rebel leaders did not immediately comment on Tapias' accusations, but in
the past they have denied direct involvement in the cocaine trade.