CRIME NETWORKS IN CENTRAL AMERICA INCREASE THEIR TRAFFICKING OF DRUGS

With Infusion Of Cash, Syndicates Gaining Against Authorities

GUATEMALA CITY -- Powerful organizations that control smuggling, auto theft
and arms trafficking in Central America are using those established
networks to smuggle illegal drugs, U.S. and regional officials warn.

The infusion of drug money is allowing criminal enterprises to become a
parallel force that can threaten national security, worrying military and
church officials as well as government authorities.

"Our Central America has become a corridor for drugs, guns and religious
art," said Bishop Mario R(acu)os Montt, director of the Archbishop's Office
on Human Rights in this capital. Criminal organizations that control this
illegal trade are becoming the major threat to human rights in a region
that barely has left behind brutal military regimes, he said.

In Guatemala, officials warn that narcotics traffickers aligned with local
organized crime are turning the country into a virtual warehouse for
Colombian cocaine bound for America and Europe.

Five years ago, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency estimated that 50 tons of
cocaine passed through Guatemala each year. Some officials now believe that
quantity has quadrupled.

"Cocaine transshipment through Guatemala is expected to continue to
increase, with no letup projected in the foreseeable future," predicted the
most recent U.S. State Department report on international anti-drug efforts.

Combat with authorities

Drug profits appear to have encouraged smugglers to engage in combat with
government authorities, officials said. In early 2000, a tractor-trailer
rig headed to western Guatemala from the Caribbean port of Puerto Barrios,
an established narcotics transshipment hub, drove through a customs
roadblock. When customs officials pursued, the driver tried to run them off
the road.

Then the rig stopped and several men scrambled out, submachine guns drawn.
The out-gunned customs officials gave up the pursuit.

Shortly afterward, a car thief stole a Guatemalan army vehicle and killed
the officer who was driving it.

Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Juan de Dios Estrada has become so concerned
about the threat from organized crime that he is working with customs
officials, police and private businesses to try to fight smugglers, one of
the most visible arms of the networks. That is a significant change in
position for the armed forces, whose members themselves have been accused
in the past of links to criminal networks.

Four years ago, former Gen. César Augusto Garc(acu)a González, was fired as
vice minister of defense amid accusations that he was involved in a
smuggling and robbery ring allegedly run by Alfredo Moreno Molina, a former
military intelligence officer. Sixteen other officials, including three
colonels, police officers and customs officials also were dismissed in
connection with the ring.

Under Estrada, for the past six months, soldiers have been assigned to
customs security at mobile roadblocks. Often, they act on tips from private
business owners who have noticed suspicious movements.

So far, the operations have uncovered smuggled goods that evaded $461
million in import taxes, an aide to the general said. They have found no
illegal drugs.

Still, Estrada said, "There is a relationship between smuggling and
narcotics trafficking. We are making it less feasible to move narcotics
over land."

Focus on sea routes

American drug-enforcement efforts focus on sea routes for drug shipments;
U.S. customs officials work to organize their foreign counterparts into
multi-agency, anti-narcotics task forces similar to the nascent effort in
Guatemala.

Edward Moriarty, who runs the project for U.S. Customs, says traffickers
are looking for ways to smuggle smaller amounts of narcotics with a less
threat of capture.

Officials in Costa Rica, long considered a refuge of stability and safety
in Central America, were concerned enough to join six other Latin American
countries in the U.S.-sponsored program detecting smuggled goods, including
illegal drugs, in legitimate shipments. The program has recovered 240,000
pounds of illegal drugs, about half of it cocaine, in five years, Moriarty
said.

Central Americans are equally concerned with the implications of organized
crime networks that stretch beyond illegal drugs.

"These are not just little groups without capabilities or means," said
R(acu)os Montt. Before Christmas, criminals broke into the cathedral and
another downtown church, stealing a silver statue of Christ, a silver
facade for an altar and a large jeweled Eucharist holder.

The thieves needed the means to move such large, heavy objects and a market
for them, he said. Military intelligence indicates that criminal
organizations operating in Guatemala are parts of networks with
international ties, Estrada said.