U.S.-COLOMBIAN RAID NETS $35 MILLION IN CASH

Drugs: Officials Say Money Found Stashed In Walls Apparently Was To Be
Laundered By Cartel.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- In a joint U.S.-Colombian operation, police found $35
million stashed in the walls of two Bogota apartments--one of the largest
seizures of drug money ever, officials said Saturday.

The commander of the Colombian national police, Gen. Ernesto Gilibert, said
Saturday that the apartments where the money was found were used as
"private banks" by the North Valley Cartel, a major cocaine ring.

The money was found Friday packed in more than 300 plastic-wrapped bundles
of $100,000 each. The cash, in denominations of $20s, $50s and $100s, was
displayed at a news conference Saturday at national police headquarters in
Bogota. In Washington, U.S. Customs Service spokesman Dean Boyd said it was
"one of the largest single seizures of U.S. currency ever."

Police found $15 million hidden behind a bathroom wall in an apartment in
northern Bogota and $20 million behind a kitchen wall in a dwelling about a
mile away, officials said.

One person was detained during the raids, but police did not release his
identity.

At the Bogota news conference, U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson and
Gilibert congratulated each other on the operation, in which the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration and Colombian police participated.

"Every time we trail international criminals, the DEA plays an important
role," Gilibert said.

The seizures came after Wednesday's arrest of Felix Chitiva Carrasquilla,
considered one of the top men in the North Valley Cartel, which operates
out of the southern province of Cauca.

Chitiva was arrested in Cali, 185 miles southwest of Bogota. He is wanted
on two warrants in federal court in Florida, one of which stems from a
drug-trafficking case from the early 1990s.

Colombian police say Chitiva was responsible for a 10-ton shipment of
cocaine seized in Venezuela a year ago. It was confiscated as part of an
investigation, dubbed Operation Journey, that resulted in the seizure of
about 25 tons of cocaine and the arrests of 43 people worldwide.

The $35 million stashed in the two locations apparently was to be
laundered, officials said.

Colombian drug smugglers provide at least three-quarters of the world's
cocaine and often smuggle back to the nation huge amounts of dollars, which
are then invested in apparently legitimate enterprises such as housing
complexes, resorts, restaurants and discos.

The confiscated fortune will be spent on jails and beefing up Colombian
anti-drug forces, including the purchase of technical equipment, officials said.