BRAZIL FEARS FALLOUT OF DRUG CRACKDOWN

TABATINGA, Brazil ­­ By 9 a.m. on most weekdays, the border here is thick
with traffic as Brazilians and Colombians stroll and drive unencumbered
across the frontier to shop, work and attend school. But such free passage
has also had a bitter downside for residents of this steamy city: an
illicit cross-border drug trade.

Now, with Colombia's renewed determination to strangle drug trafficking and
end a four-decade-old civil war, Brazil is fortifying the 1,000-mile
frontier to bring relief to such cities as Tabatinga and to avoid spillover
from the Colombian campaign. Brazilian officials say they fear Colombia's
efforts could produce a swell of refugees and bring more drug use and
manufacturing and arms trafficking to Brazilian soil. The government also
says it fears that Plan Colombia--backed by $1.3 billion from the United
States--could, at some point, draw American soldiers to the border region.

Brazil last week unveiled the cornerstone of its plan to combat the
dangers. The three-year, $10-million effort known as Operation Cobra will
increase police presence at border crossings, on the waters between the two
countries and in air space covering the frontier.

The plan, which will employ seven federal agencies including the army, also
is expected to ensure that waters are not contaminated by chemical runoff
from drug plantations and laboratories closed by the Colombian government.

In addition to Operation Cobra, the government has announced that it could
send 6,000 troops to the border in the next six months.

"We can't really predict what will happen with Plan Colombia," said Mauro
Sposito, head of Special Units for the federal police force in the state of
Amazonas, where Tabatinga is located. "But we have to be ready for whatever
might happen. Our main job really is prevention."

Such proclamations are greeted with weariness and cautious hope in this
rundown city of 40,000. Residents say the spillover effects of Colombia's
drug trade have been a reality for them for two decades. With Peru south
and west across the Amazon and the Colombian border a five-minute drive
north through town, people here have long felt trapped by the drug
trafficking that flourishes in this region.

From Peru comes basic cocaine paste; through Colombia comes the refined
drug. Both are bought by dealers in Tabatinga, sold on its streets and
transported by ships from its port. Tabatinga has become so synonymous with
illicit drugs that tourists and other international visitors often come
through here specifically to find cocaine, as evidenced by the Greek,
Lebanese, and Japanese prisoners being held in the city jail.

The historically lax law enforcement along this triple border region, as it
is known, also has proven an irresistible temptation to those seeking to
ship drugs out. Tabatinga residents have been arrested in such places as
Germany and the Netherlands after trying to take cocaine over those
borders, and Brazilian police say they routinely seize hundreds of pounds
of drugs along the frontier here.

Clandestine flights pass through the region daily, gliding undetected below
radar. Sposito said that in the past three years, Brazilian and Colombian
authorities have dismantled 16 jungle landing strips near the border.

Yet residents accuse the Brazilian government of not doing enough to stop
the local or international drug trade and its accompanying violence. In
July and August, at least eight people were killed in drug-related
shootings, according to police.

"You're afraid in the street, even if you're not involved [with drugs],"
said Advani Basto, a traffic officer and community activist. "You don't
want to see the wrong thing because you're afraid that they'll come back
and get you the next day."

Police say that is exactly what happened to Joao Gomes Mariano in late
August, when the 22-year-old motorcycle mechanic apparently saw a man chase
down another near the plaza of the city's largest Roman Catholic church and
blast at least eight bullets into his victim. Police say Mariano agreed to
testify in court against the shooter. But three nights after witnessing the
killing, Mariano was shot nine times in the head, neck and chest, then left
sprawled in the middle of a dirt road less than 100 yards from his home.

Sposito said Brazilian police have not focused on Tabatinga's local drug
problems because they are "interested in the people who run these
organizations, the people at the top." Other Brazilian officials said the
government has not cracked down because of logistical, personnel and cost
considerations.

Colombian guerrillas stock up on food, fuel and other necessities in
Leticia, just across the border in Colombia and have never used Tabatinga
as a base or resting area, according to officials and residents here. Now,
residents worry that guerrillas could seek refuge in Tabatinga and other
places on this side of the border once the Colombian government clamps down
on the rebels.

"That possibility certainly exists if the Brazilian government doesn't do
anything," said Tabatinga Mayor Raimundo Batista de Souza. "It's what we're
all afraid of."