COLOMBIA PROBES REBELS' DRUG TRAFFICKING FOR 1ST TIME

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Prosecutors opened a drug trafficking inquiry into
the highest-ranking members of Colombia's largest rebel group for the first
time, the attorney general's office said Wednesday.

Leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have been
directly involved in smuggling drugs through Brazil, according to a report
published in El Tiempo, Colombia's largest newspaper.

The attorney general's office confirmed the paper's report of the
investigation, which has implicated the FARC's top leaders, including the
supreme commander, Manuel Marulanda, and the military chief Jorge Briceno.

"This is excellent news for Colombians," said Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora,
Colombia's armed forces commander. "I hope that this case is pursued
because right now we, the military forces, have absolutely no doubt about
the role of the FARC in every step of drug trafficking in Colombia."

Colombia produces 90 percent of the world's cocaine and the majority of the
heroin used in the United States last year. The government of President
Uribe has accused the rebels of financing their war with drug money.

The top FARC leaders already face an average of 100 charges each ranging
from terrorism to kidnapping, said Carolina Sanchez, spokeswoman for the
attorney general's office. But these are the first legal proceedings
looking into drug trafficking charges, she confirmed.

Part of the evidence includes intercepted conversations in which Briceno
discusses drug transactions with Tomas Molina Caracas, the article said.
Molina is one of several FARC leaders already indicted in the United States
on drug trafficking charges.

The prosecutors also have accounting books grabbed in a May army raid on a
FARC camp that detail drugs-for-guns deals, as well as witnesses claiming
that each rebel unit reports drug earnings to the high command of the FARC,
which has been battling a succession of elected governments in Colombia for
38 years.

Other top leaders implicated include Alfonso Cano, Raul Reyes and Joaquin
Gomez, the last two important negotiators in the three-year failed peace
process.