COLLUSION IN COLOMBIA?

Clinton Should Probe Claims Of DEA Wrongdoing

President Clinton will travel to Colombia this month to ceremonially deliver
the recently approved $1.3 billion in U.S. aid for battling drug
trafficking. But his visit could be marred by claims from the head of
Colombia's notoriously violent paramilitary army -- an illegal group widely
accused of murdering innocent Colombians during that nation's civil war --
that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency sought his help in running drug
traffickers out of business.

There is enough in this disturbing claim and others to demand serious
inquiry. How far might the DEA have stretched U.S. neutrality in that civil
war in trying to snag Colombian drug dealers?

Carlos Castano, Colombia's paramilitary leader, told El Nuevo Herald that,
through an envoy, he'd reached an accord with DEA agents David Tinsley and
Larry Castillo to meet them and other U.S. officials who apparently wanted
him to pressure drug dealers into surrendering to U.S. authorities. Such a
deal would have effectively allied the United States with a man viewed by
many as a criminal. The meeting never happened, according to Castano,
because Baruch Vega, allegedly a DEA informant, wanted to profit from the
deal.

This story cannot easily be dismissed as fantasy. Mr. Vega, a flamboyant
Colombian photographer, is under investigation by the FBI. The FBI complaint
describes him as an informant for the U.S. Customs Service, FBI and DEA for
years. DEA agents Tinsley and Castillo, suspended with pay, also are under
investigation.

Suggesting that Mr. Vega acted on his own, the FBI complaint alleges that
Mr. Vega conned the drug dealers into giving him millions. But some
Colombian officials as well as drug traffickers are convinced that Mr. Vega
had the backing of U.S. authorities. That's how Mr. Vega drew drug
traffickers into paying huge sums and informing on other traffickers, and
got them lenient U.S. treatment, if not complete freedom, for leaving the
business. Flight records, moreover, show Mr. Vega flying some dozen times to
Panama -- regularly accompanied by DEA agents, local police officers,
criminal lawyers and fashion models -- to meet drug dealers.

Even the respected former head of the Colombian National Police, Jose
Serrano, complained to El Nuevo that Mr. Vega's solicitation of drug
traffickers almost defeated Operation Millennium, a massive DEA-sponsored
raid in Colombia and Mexico last year.

Obviously the claims of a suspect informant and a ruthless paramilitary
chief alone aren't proof of wrongdoing by U.S. agencies. But there is enough
evidence that Mr. Clinton must demand answers to these questions: Were the
DEA and other U.S. authorities offering sweetheart deals to traffickers to
get them off the street? Were they willing to ally with a paramilitary
leader who finances his illicit war and human-rights abuses with drug
profits?

An affirmative answer to either question undermines U.S. goals in Colombia.