SERIES DETAILS PABLO ESCOBAR CASE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- U.S. experts played an extensive role in funding
and guiding the Colombian authorities who hunted down and killed
cocaine lord Pablo Escobar, according to an investigation by The
Philadelphia Inquirer.

The newspaper, which begins publishing the results of a two-year
investigation in Sunday' s editions, also said the Colombian police
unit Search Bloc that worked with the Americans in the manhunt had
links with vigilantes who assassinated 300 of Escobar' s associates
and relatives in the Medellin drug cartel.

" The United States continued to supply intelligence, training and
planning to the Search Bloc even as the assassinations continued, "
the Inquirer said in the first story of its series. The paper made a
copy of the story available to The Associated Press.

An American official involved in the operation, then Ambassador Morris
D. Busby, is quoted in the article as saying he never found the
allegations of links with vigilantes convincing.

American involvement in the Escobar operation was far more extensive
than previously acknowledged, the Inquirer said. It included millions
of dollars and the use of elite U.S. units such as the Army' s Delta
Force and the Navy SEALs as well as the CIA, FBI, Drug Enforcement
Administration and the National Security Agency, the newspaper said.

U.S. officials have previously acknowledged training the Search
Bloc.

Escobar' s killing in December 1993 ended a long terror campaign that
shook Colombia to its core. The drug lord' s gang set off bombs,
downed an airliner and killed dozens of police officers and officials
to coerce the government to not extradite drug suspects to the United
States.

While hailed as a major drug war victory at the time, the cocaine
king' s death failed to stem the flow of cocaine from Colombia to the
United States and Europe, estimated last year at roughly 500 tons.

Washington is currently embarking on a major new commitment to fight
cocaine trafficking in the South American country, providing $1.3
billion for helicopters and training for Colombian anti-narcotics troops.

According to the Inquirer report, Busby and DEA officials lobbied for
continued aid and support for the Escobar manhunt despite reports of
Search Bloc cooperation with the vigilantes known as Los Pepes --
People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar.

Busby, who along with CIA station chief Bill Wagner supervised the
U.S. activities, is quoted as saying he did not find those allegations
convincing.

If he had, " it would have been a show-stopper, " Busby is quoted as
saying. " We would have pulled everybody out of the country."

The AP could not locate Busby to seek comment on the Inquirer
report.

Enrique Parejo, a former Colombian justice minister who survived an
assassination attempt ordered by Pablo Escobar, told the AP on
Saturday that police links to Los Pepes had always been rumored but
that he had never seen any definitive evidence.

Carlos Medellin, another former justice minister, said U.S. aid and
intelligence was critical not only in finding Escobar but in the 1995
arrests in Colombia of the leaders of the rival Cali cocaine cartel.
The Cali gang took over the drug trade after Escobar' s death and was
widely rumored to have helped Search Bloc locate him.

Gen. Hugo Martinez, the Colombian police chief who led the manhunt for
Escobar, told the Inquirer that Search Bloc did not work with Los Pepes.

But according to a DEA cable cited in the story, a top Los Pepes
leader -- Fidel Castano -- even led a Search Bloc raid on a suspected
Escobar hideout. Castano is the late brother of Colombian paramilitary
leader Carlos Castano, a fugitive wanted in numerous massacres and
assassinations.

Pablo Escobar may himself have been assassinated, the Inquirer added,
contradicting official accounts that he died in a gunfight with police
on Dec. 2, 1993. An autopsy showed the drug lord was shot point-blank
in the ear, the newspaper said.

The Inquirer said that because of concerns about police-vigilante
links, the Pentagon had just before Escobar' s death begun to withdraw
two covert Army counterterrorism and surveillance units that had
helped Colombian officials track the drug lord' s movements and plan
police raids.