THIRTY-ONE SEIZED IN COLOMBIA-U.S. DRUG BUST

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian police backed by U.S. anti-drug officials
seized 31 suspected cocaine and heroin traffickers in cities along the
country's Caribbean coast Wednesday in a series of raids dubbed "Operation
High Tide".

National Police chief Gen. Luis Ernesto Gilibert said the so-called
Caribbean Coast Cartel was responsible for smuggling between 440 pounds and
660 pounds of drugs to the United States and Europe each month. He did not
specify what proportion was cocaine and how much was heroin.

The pre-dawn bust was carried out in tandem with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA).

The gang produced the drugs in secret laboratories in regions of northern
Colombia controlled by outlaw ultra-right paramilitary groups, according to
Gilibert. U.S. and Colombian officials accuse both paramilitary and rival
Marxist guerrilla forces of ties to the drug trade.

The arrests coincided with the arrival of Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commander
of the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, headquarters for U.S. military
operations throughout Latin America.

Wilhelm is due to spend two days in Colombia discussing details of the
record $1.3 billion aid package approved by the U.S. Congress in June to
help this war-torn Andean nation fight the drug trade and Marxist rebels.

"This is a heavy blow to the Colombia's drug mafias who are exporting
drugs," Gilibert said at an evening news conference at which two alleged
traffickers, handcuffed together, were shown to the media.

The operation centered on the three main Caribbean coast ports of
Barranquilla, Cartagena and Santa Marta. Libardo Parra, alleged ringleader
of cartel, was among those detained.

The arrests marked the biggest strike against Colombia's notorious drug
mobs since "Operation Millennium One" in October 1999 and "Operation
Millennium Two" in April this year -- both carried out with DEA assistance.

In the first of those operations, police captured 31 people who allegedly
shipped as much as $1 billion of cocaine a month to the United States and
Europe.

The second bust snared 46 suspects accused of sending some $9 million of
heroin to the United States each month.

The United States has asked for many of those captured to be extradited to
face trial in U.S. courts where sentences are generally much higher than
under Colombia's relatively lax penal code.

The DEA calculates Colombia is responsible for 80 percent of world cocaine
supply and exports around two-thirds of the high-grade heroin sold on U.S.
streets.

According to U.S. figures Colombia produced some 520 metric tons of cocaine
and around six metric tons of heroin last year.