COLOMBIAN CITY SNARES 1,100 CRIMINALS IN DRAGNET

MEDELLIN, Colombia (Reuters) - Police arrested more than 1,100 suspected
drug pushers, car thieves, extortionists, rapists and gunmen in sweeps in
Medellin, one of Colombia's most lawless cities, over the last 36 hours,
officials said on Wednesday.

The city-wide dragnet, code-named the "Takeover of Medellin", was one of
the largest coordinated crackdowns ever seen in Colombia, beset by one of
the highest murder rates in Latin America, rampant drug-fueled crime and
leftist rebel violence.

The operation was an effort to reverse wide-ranging impunity. Some 95
percent of all crimes go unpunished, according to the government's own
figures.

Gen. Luis Rodriguez, head of Medellin police, said more than 2,500 police
agents took part in the anti-crime offensive.

He added that 152 firearms, 5,000 knives, 224 pounds of marijuana, 22
pounds of cocaine and 181 walkie-talkies had been confiscated. In addition,
149 stolen vehicles and other goods worth a total $675,000 had been recovered.

Medellin is the country's third largest city with some 2 million
inhabitants, or about 5 percent of the country's total population, but last
year it accounted for about 10 percent of the 224,000 crimes reported
nationally.

During the 1980s and early 1990s the northwest city was the power base of
the notorious Medellin drug mob and gained the reputation as one of the
most violent places on earth.

Despite the demise of the drug gangs there were still more than 3,000
murders in Medellin last year, according to police figures.

Officials said Bogota would be the next target of a massive police
crackdown.