ARRESTS MADE IN COLOMBIAN AIR FORCE DRUG SCANDAL

BOGOTA, Colombia(Reuters) -- Eight members of Colombia's Air Force,
including a security chief at Bogota's military air base, were arrested on
Thursday for their alleged role in a massive shipment of cocaine to the
United States, authorities said.

Two senior officers were forced to resign in disgrace, meanwhile, as part of
the continuing fallout from the military drug-running incident.

The air force personnel detained late on Thursday were all stationed at the
Catam Air Force base just outside Bogota, judicial sources said.

The base was the point of departure of a C-130 military transport plane,
which U.S. officials found to be carrying 1,639 pounds (743 kg) of cocaine
when it landed on Monday at Fort Lauderdale International Airport outside
Miami.

Spokesmen for Prosecutor-General Alfonso Gomez identified Maj. Gonzalo
Noguera, chief of security at Catam, as among the eight men arrested for
their suspected role in the drug-smuggling case.

The others included a captain and six junior officers, the spokesmen said.

It was not immediately clear if they had been formally charged but the
arrests were believed to be the first made in the case, which seriously
embarrassed the government and reinforced Colombia's drug tarnished image
abroad.

Air Force chief Gen. Manuel Sandoval resigned on Tuesday over the incident,
saying he felt personally responsible for the lapse in security at the
country's most heavily-transited air force base.

Air Force spokesmen said the commander and deputy commander of the Catam
base, both of whom held the rank of colonel, were forced to follow in
Sandoval's footsteps on Thursday after military chiefs ordered that they be
cashiered.

The drug incident, which shocked many Colombians even though their nation is
the world's leading supplier of cocaine, was the second high-profile case
involving Bogota's military airbase in as many years.

Just last week, three junior air force officers were sentenced to 7-1/2
years in prison for conspiring to smuggle nearly nine pounds (4 kg) of
heroin to the United States aboard Colombia's presidential jet.

The drug was discovered in the nose section of the jet on Sept. 20, 1996,
shortly before then-president Ernesto Samper was due to fly to a U.N.
General Assembly meeting in New York.

Checked-by: Don Beck