COLOMBIA SEIZES $60 MLN COCAINE STASH BURIED ON BEACH

Security forces seized Tuesday 6,600 pounds (3,000 kg) of pure
cocaine, worth at least $60 million, buried on a remote beach in
northern Colombia in a region dominated by outlaw ultra-right
paramilitary gangs.

It was the biggest drug haul since authorities confiscated 12,000
pounds (6,000 kg) of cocaine in a joint operation with the U.S. Coast
Guard aboard a vessel that had set sail from Colombia's Pacific coast
in mid-February.

Colombian Navy commander Admiral Sergio Garcia said his men, working
with the state security police DAS, made Tuesday's bust on the
Caribbean beach of Punta La Tigua, in Sucre province.

"This was an impressive amount. This could be worth about $60
million," he told Reuters in a phone interview.

The surrounding area is a stronghold of right-wing death squads led by
paramilitary chieftain Carlos Castano, whom U.S. and Colombian
authorities have accused of trafficking drugs.

The bust came 10 days after police launched a crackdown on drug
production in another paramilitary stronghold in northeast Norte de
Santander province.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), cocaine
sells for between $10,500 and $36,000 per kilo (2.2 pounds) wholesale
in the United States, meaning Tuesday's consignment could have been
worth up to $108 million.

Garcia was unable to say where the cocaine discovered in Sucre was
destined for. Colombia is estimated to supply about 80 percent of the
world's cocaine and up to two-thirds of the heroin sold in the United
States.

One of the largest drug busts ever seen in Colombia was in July 1998
when police seized 7.5 tons of cocaine packed in containers at the
Caribbean coast port of Cartagena.