FORMER SURINAME LEADER SENTENCED IN DRUG TRAFFICKING

A Dutch court sentenced the former ruler of Suriname to 16 years in prison
and a $2.3 million fine Friday for running a cocaine-smuggling ring in his
South American homeland.

But Dutch authorities will first have to catch the former leader, Desi
Bouterse, who remains at large and politically powerful in Suriname, a
former Dutch colony on the northeast coast of South America. He was
convicted in absentia.

Authorities charged that shipments worth an estimated $24 million were
taken out of Suriname from 1989 to 1997. Most of the drugs were brought to
the Netherlands, they said.