COLOMBIA POLICE MAKE CHRISTMAS DAY MARIJUANA BUST

BOGOTA, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Police seized 17.9 tons (16,260 kg) of
marijuana packed into shipping containers in Colombia's main Pacific
coast port of Buenaventura early on Christmas Day.

The huge stash -- one of the biggest marijuana hauls this year -- was
bound for Central America and would have been shipped on to the United
States, according to regional police chief Col. Gilberto Jimenez.

"We have seized 16,260 kilos of pressed marijuana which the drug
traffickers were trying to export to Honduras," Jimenez said, adding
that two people had been arrested.

Last year Colombian authorities confiscated more than 134 tons of
marijuana but seizures have dropped to about half that this year while
cocaine and heroin seizures have risen to record levels.

Anti-drug police said last week they had seized some 59 tons (54,000
kg) of cocaine and 830 pounds (376 kg) of high grade heroin in 1998.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates Colombia
supplies 80 percent of the world's cocaine and up to 60 percent of
the heroin sold on U.S. streets.

Colombian officials estimate some $4 billion in proceeds from the
illicit drug trade is laundered through Colombia each year, making it
the country's top export earner above oil and coffee.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry