2 LINKED TO COLOMBIAN GUERRILA GROUP PLEAD GUILTY IN MIAMI TO COCAINE PLOT

Miami -- Two reputed associates of Colombia's largest guerrilla group
pleaded guilty to drug charges in federal court Thursday, handing
U.S. prosecutors what they say are their first convictions against
accused members of the violent paramilitary group known as the FARC.

Cesar Augusto Perez-Parra and Farouk Shaikh-Reyes, who prosecutors
contend worked for the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia,
admitted to a plot that started in 2003 to import 1,000 to 2,000
kilograms of cocaine into South Florida every 15 to 45 days.

The men were arranging the deal with individuals cooperating with the
U.S. government, and the drugs were never supplied, prosecutors said.

Perez-Parra, 43, and Shaikh-Reyes, 41, were extradited to the United
States earlier this year.

Prosecutors accuse a third alleged FARC member named in the February
2005 indictment of overseeing coca fields and laboratories, and
charging fees and taxes to individuals involved in the cocaine trade.
Ferney Tovar-Parra is awaiting extradition from Colombia.

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the guilty pleas from Perez-
Parra and Shaikh-Reyes, coming on the heels of Tuesday's convictions
of two founders of the notorious Cali cocaine cartel, signal the
government's commitment to fight drug trafficking.

Miami attorney Philip Horowitz, who represents Shaikh-Reyes, disputed
that his client was a member of the FARC, a group U.S. officials
consider a terrorist organization.

"My client pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to
distribute cocaine," he said. "My client was never charged with being
a member of FARC, he never admitted to it and he wouldn't admit to it."

Prosecutors are recommending prison terms of roughly six years for
Shaikh-Reyes and about 11 years for Perez-Parra.

On Thursday, Department of Treasury officials added Tovar-Parra and
other FARC leaders to a list of known narcotics traffickers, which
freezes their financial assets.

According to federal authorities, FARC supplies more than 60 percent
of the cocaine entering the United States. To protect their hold on
cocaine exports from Colombia, FARC commanders order the executions
of farmers who defy their rules, U.S. officials said.