COLOMBIA REPORTS HIGH SEAS HEROIN HAUL

CARTAGENA, Colombia, More than 880 pounds (400 kg)
of heroin have been seized aboard a fishing boat boarded in open seas
northeast of the Caribbean port city of Cartagena, authorities said
on Saturday.

Police and military spokesmen said the drug, apparently destined for
the lucrative U.S. market, had been stashed in a shipment of car
batteries found in the boat's cargo bay.

The vessel was boarded on Friday about 200 miles (320 km) northeast of
Cartagena in a joint operation involving the U.S. Coast Guard and the
Colombian Navy, said Rear Adm. Jairo Cardona of Colombia's Atlantic
Naval Command. Five crewmen, all Colombians, were arrested, he said.

U.S. drug experts say Colombia is the source of about 80 percent of
the world's cocaine and a leading supplier of the high-grade heroin
sold in the United States.

It was not clear if the seized heroin had been shipped from Cartagena,
but police say the city has become a major smuggling port. More than
seven tonnes of cocaine were found there last month in a shipping
container bound for Cuba.