U.S. HOPES COLOMBIA DRUG BUST WILL PUT DENT IN TRAFFIC

(BOGOTA, Colombia) - Although encouraged by their apparent crippling of
a major international drug ring, U.S. law-enforcement officials remain
worried about the remarkable resiliency of Colombia's cocaine
entrepreneurs.

Authorities arrested 31 people yesterday in what was called the
biggest blow to Colombian drug trafficking since 1995.

The ring smashed yesterday was the heir apparent to the Medellin and
Cali cartels, Colombia's main drug mafias from the 1980s through the
mid-90s, and shipped between 20 and 30 tons of cocaine a month into
Mexico for distribution in the United States, officials said.

They said Alejandro Bernal Madrigal, 40, of Bogota set up the ring,
using remnants of the Medellin cartel and other drug gangs and
employing advanced technology, including encrypted and cloned cell
phones and Internet voice communication.

Bernal was arrested outside Bogota after a brief shootout with his
three bodyguards in which no one was hurt. Bernal's chief link in
Mexico, Armando Valencia, was among 43 co-conspirators named in an
indictment unsealed yesterday in Miami that specified
drug-trafficking, racketeering and money-laundering charges. One
suspect was arrested in Mexico, but Valencia remained at large,
officials said.

Those arrested in Colombia will be extradited to stand trial in the
United States, national police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano told
reporters in Bogota. They would be the first Colombians extradited to
the United States under a December 1997 law that overturned a six-year
ban on the practice.

By Serrano's account, it was the most important blow to Colombia
traffickers since the Cali cartel's leaders were captured in 1995,
splintering the business. The Medellin cartel effectively vanished
with the December 1993 police killing of its boss, Pablo Escobar.

Among those arrested was Fabio Ochoa, the cocaine kingpin and former
ally of the late cocaine king Pablo Escobar.

Ochoa faced a federal drug-trafficking indictment in Miami, among
other U.S. indictments, and was linked by U.S. drug agents to the 1986
murder of a drug informant, Barry Seal, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Past crackdowns have failed to dent Colombia's drug
trade.

"Historically, when major traffickers are arrested, others immediately
try to take their place - we can and must reverse this trend," Barry
McCaffrey, President Clinton's top drug adviser, said in a statement.

The cultivation of coca, the raw material of cocaine, has doubled in
three years in Colombia, according to McCaffrey, who is seeking to
boost U.S. aid to help Colombia's army combat the rebels.

At the same time, the U.S. military has stepped up electronic
eavesdropping in Colombia with spy planes and other means.

Serrano said his officers worked "shoulder to shoulder" for more than
a year with U.S. agents in the investigation that led to the sting.