COLOMBIA'S DRUG FIGHTER `WORLD'S BEST' COP

CALI, Colombia -- Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, Colombia's chief of police, has
watched a man accused of trafficking 30 tons of cocaine a month break down
in tears on mentioning the upcoming birthday of his twin daughters.

Serrano has "survived 40-odd death threats . . . with security rivaling a
head of state," says a staffer for U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), a friend
of the general. Serrano also dismantled the Cali drug cartel in the
mid-1990s, which had outlasted Medellin cartel boss Pablo Escobar's defunct
gang by several years.

For all this, the 57-year-old official--who has been in law enforcement for
nearly four decades in a country that's said to allow 95 out of 100
criminals to go free--was voted the "World's Best Policeman" two years
running by the International Association of Police Chiefs.

After hearing the general tell some of his tales, Colombian Nobel laureate
Gabriel Garcia Marquez told him, "you should write a book."

Serrano did just that. It will hit bookstores in two weeks, while a New York
agent negotiates translation rights and a possible movie deal.

A recent Tuesday was a normal day for the chief. As budget squabbles begat
deals in Washington, Serrano faxed a letter to U.S. House Speaker Dennis
Hastert (R-Ill.) from his office in Bogota, Colombia's chaotic capital. It
was a last-minute appeal to move along a $1 billion aid package for fighting
drug trafficking and strengthening economic development.

Colombia President Andres Pastrana drafted one version of this package; Sen.
Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) put together another.

After sending the fax, Serrano picked up the phone to call Colombia's
defense minister.

"Nobody believed me, but we got it," he said. The general was referring to
the Colombian Supreme Court's order to hand Jaime Lara Nausa over to the
United States. Lara was one of 30 alleged drug bosses nabbed in October's
international dragnet dubbed "Operation Millennium.

"But we better be on our toes," said Serrano. "This isn't going to be easy."

He was referring to the possibility of retaliation, in the style of
Escobar's string of bombings in the late 1980s and early 1990s to stop
extraditions. The extraditions were halted in 1991. And the bombings stopped
after police fatally shot Escobar in 1993, when Serrano was head of the
anti-narcotics unit.

Because of the violence, Colombia's leaders were wary of reinstituting
extradition until December 1997, when U.S. pressure helped put it back on
the books.

A source on Capitol Hill describes Serrano as being possessed of a
"dedication to fighting the drug war . . . unrivaled in Colombia and
possibly in the United States."

This same dedication has driven the police chief to purge a force rife with
corruption, firing some 8,000 officers during his five years in office.

Serrano's friendships in Congress and U.S. police circles are well-known and
have caused conflicts with members of Pastrana's Cabinet. He has been
accused of going outside diplomatic channels in his numerous visits to
Washington to gain aid.

The friction has been eased in recent months by assurances that everyone is
united behind Pastrana in his "Plan Colombia," which carries a price tag of
$3.5 billion in foreign aid.

According to one senior official, Pastrana now realizes that "Serrano is a
key card to play in future relations with Washington."

The general's alliances on Capitol Hill also have won him the epithet of
"pro-Yankee" from the Marxist FARC guerrilla movement, one of three major
forces in Colombia's political strife, together with the army and
paramilitary organizations.

He says he wants to win the war on drugs.

"Drug trafficking is the devil," the general said. "If we can get rid of
that, we can reach peace in Colombia."

Serrano is strongly against legalizing drugs. "Drugs are different from
alcohol, and Prohibition was different from what we're going through. A
drink can be managed socially, but doesn't necessarily lead to alcoholism.
Whereas drug users always ascend . . . you see that many marijuana smokers
go on to shoot heroin, and so on."

At the same time, Serrano sees what he calls "the human side" of the drug
kingpins. He sits down to talk to with them after capturing them and says
they "talk about themselves."

After last month's Operation Millennium, Serrano spoke with Alejandro
Bernal, 40, ringleader for remnants of the Medellin cartel and other gangs.
"He told me that his twin daughters were going to be a year old two days
later, and cried. You struggle to nab these guys, and then you feel sorry
for them."