COLOMBIA REBELS, DRUG TRADE LINKED

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The commander of Colombia's army said Wednesday he
has hard proof that leftist rebels are now involved in almost every phase
of the international drug trade and warned that guerrillas could be
extradited for trial abroad.

Documents seized during army raids in the jungles of eastern Colombia
showed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are involved in
the cultivation of coca, own processing labs and illicit airstrips, and
sell cocaine to international cartels, Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora told a news
conference.

"They are also involved in money laundering," Mora said. "The only thing we
have not found is these bandits of the FARC selling cocaine on the streets
of New York."

Mora said the documents would be turned over to Colombian prosecutors and
"international institutions,'' adding: ``The bandits of the FARC can be
extradited."

During a recent visit to jungles near the border with Brazil, U.S. Marine
Corps Gen. Peter Pace o who heads U.S. military operations in Latin America
o said he believed rebels and drug traffickers are "one and the same in
this region."

FARC spokesman Carlos Antonio Lozada called the charges "a pretext and
excuse to the international community for the growing (U.S.) intervention
in the Colombian conflict."

In comments carried by a pro-FARC Internet site, ANNCOL, Lozada said any
extraditions of rebels to the United States would derail peace initiatives
President Andres Pastrana's government is pursuing with the rebels.
Pastrana has refused to call the FARC drug traffickers.

The FARC acknowledges it "taxes" farmers who grow coca crops, but denies it
smuggles cocaine or works directly with international drug traffickers.

Prosecutor-General Alfonso Gomez said in a recent interview that if the
United States sought the extradition of rebels for drug trafficking, such
requests would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Colombia has already dispatched a dozen suspected drug traffickers o who
were not guerrillas o to the United States since extraditions resumed in 1999.

U.S. officials have kept largely silent on whether they would seek the
extradition of suspected rebel drug traffickers for trial in the United
States o a move that would increase suspicion that Washington is getting
involved in Colombia's civil war under the guise of fighting drugs.

Under a $1.3 billion aid package, Colombian soldiers trained by U.S. Green
Berets have been destroying drug labs protected by the FARC and by a rival
right-wing paramilitary group. The troops also provide covering fire for
crop dusters, accompanied by U.S.-supplied combat helicopters, which have
wiped out 100 square miles of coca plantations since December.