COLOMBIA SEIZES 1.2 TONS OF COCAINE

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - The Colombian Navy on Tuesday seized 2,750
pounds of pure cocaine worth up to $45 million from a speed boat off the
Caribbean Coast, officials said.

A spokesman for the Navy said three men where arrested in the operation,
which took place off northern Sucre province, the scene of fierce
territorial battles between leftist guerrillas and outlawed right-wing
death squads.

The drug was destined for Mexico or Central America, where it would be
transshipped to the United States, the spokesman said.

Colombia produces or refines 80 percent of the world's cocaine and a major
supplier of heroin to the United States, according to the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The drug trade has been blamed for fueling the South American nation's
four-decade civil war, which has killed more than 35,000 civilians and
displaced two million people in the last 10 years alone.