DRUG ERADICATION PLANE CRASH

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A national police plane on a drug eradication
mission crashed Monday in a remote southern region where leftist rebels are
active, killing the pilot, authorities said.

The T-65 TurboThrush singe-engine prop plane crashed near the town of La
Vega while spraying poppy crops, the raw material of heroin, said regional
police commander, Col. Hipolito Herrera.

Authorities had not yet determined the cause of the crash and rebel gunfire
was not ruled out.

The rebels levy taxes on the drug crop cultivation and production, using
proceeds to fund their insurgency. Colombia is the source of some 80 percent
of the processed cocaine that reaches the United States.