NEW TRAFFICKERS ROAM COLOMBIA

Third generation: Low-profile, business-savvy gangs are replacing the old
drug cartels, but their members are equally efficient and harder to catch.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The new breed of Colombian drug trafficker has
abandoned the model of the huge narcotics cartel, shunning ostentation in
favor of a low-key life.

Out are bodyguards and armor-plated Toyota Land Cruisers. In are taxis and
conservative business suits.

``Today's drug trafficker shelters himself in very small, subtle
organizations,'' Colombia's national police chief, Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano,
said in an interview. ``He doesn't go around anymore in fancy sneakers,
with Rolex watch, gold chains and a revolver on his belt.''

The vast majority of traffickers in Colombia now are virtual unknowns. But
they are efficient, U.S. and Colombian officials agree. The flow of cocaine
from the world's leading producer nation, estimated at 550 tons a year, has
not ebbed2E

Nor has business declined for Mexican intermediaries, who also favor a
quieter, more businesslike style. Like the Arellano Felix gang in Tijuana,
who once were known for violence and high visibility, the big drug lords
are no longer visible in upscale Tijuana nightclubs.

Gone are Colombia's drug cartels, the conglomerates that controlled each
step of the business, from cultivation to clandestine labs to U.S. street
sales.

``This is more like after the breakup of AT&T. Now you have the Baby
Bells,'' said a U.S. Embassy official, speaking on condition he not be
quoted by name.

Colombia's retooled cocaine trade is again concentrated in Medellin, where
the late Pablo Escobar ruled with murderous notoriety and commercial
efficiency. Authorities now count 43 trafficking gangs in Colombia -- half
in Medellin.

Each averages 10 to 20 associates, compared with the cartels' payrolls of
hundreds. ``They are mostly people between the ages of 25 and 40 who have
no criminal records and work through legitimate small businesses,'' said
one Colombian police intelligence official.

Some are Escobar's old lieutenants; most are sophisticated newcomers,
equipped with the latest technologies. They are Internet-savvy and deft
money launderers with a keen grasp of global finance.

The Escobar-era ``cocaine cowboys'' recruited legions of young assassins,
kept baskets full of cash and limited operations to specific regions.
Flaunting wealth and defying authorities, they flamed out in the early
1990s after their war against the state killed hundreds.

The successor Cali cartel bribed police, judges, journalists and
politicians to ignore its web of legitimate businesses. But with the help
of U.S. agents and intelligence, political pressure from Washington and a
police anti-corruption purge by Serrano, brothers Miguel and Gilberto
Rodriguez and the rest of the Cali cartel's principals were convicted and
imprisoned, beginning in 1995.

The new generation is more discreet and harder to infiltrate.

``We know of very important traffickers in Medellin who don't even have
cellular phones or beepers. They know that makes things difficult for us,''
said a police intelligence official.

Colombia's newer traffickers tend to collaborate, not compete. They may
pool resources but remain autonomous, working with both right-wing
paramilitary groups and leftist rebels, both of which earn tens of millions
of dollars a year from cocaine production.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)