COSTA RICA HOLDS SUSPECTED U.S. DRUG GANG LEADERS

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, - Costa Rican police said on
Wednesday they acted on a FBI tip to detain three Americans believed
to be linked to large-scale drug trafficking and violence since the
1970s.

Police identified the three, alleged to have smuggled marijuana,
cocaine and heroin into the United States, as Tammy Lynn Knox and
Richard and Terry Van Gadner.

The trio had been hiding in Costa Rica since mid-1998 in a tourist
zone near the Pacific coast.

Police spokesman Francisco Ruiz said they were the suspected leaders
of a cartel operating in Mexico, Colombia, Canada and the Caribbean
island of Aruba, off the Venezuelan coast.

Costa Rican law enforcement authorities said they had been alerted to
the presence of the group in the small Central American country some
two weeks ago by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The three will be held in a maximum security jail while formal
extradition papers are prepared, police said.