MEXICAN ARMY DESTROYS 340 MARIJUANA PLANTATIONS

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) - Mexican military authorities said on
Wednesday that in less than two weeks they had destroyed 340 marijuana
plantations covering an area about the size of 100 soccer fields in
the southern state of Chiapas.

The Defence Ministry said between Dec. 26 and Jan. 5, the army in
Chiapas destroyed marijuana fields covering 590,700 square yards
(537,000 square metres) as well as 135 poppy fields totalling 99,372
square yards, (90,338 square metres).

Poppies provide the raw ingredient for opium and heroin. U.S. anti-
drug officials say Mexico is gaining importance as a producer country
of the two opiates.

Chiapas, site of a five-year-old standoff between Mexican authorities
and rebel Zapatista Indians demanding improved rights for Mexico's 10
million indigenous people, is not considered one of Mexico's main
marijuana-growing areas.

The state, ranked as one of Mexico's poorest, is better known as a
transshipment route for narcotics heading through Central America to
the United States.