BOGOTA (Reuter) A prestigious soccer club named for Colombia's
millionaires has been linked to one of the country's most notorious drug
lords, authorities said Thursday.

Spokesmen for the chief prosecutor's office said legal action had been
taken late Wednesday against Club Deportivo Los Millonarios because of its
alleged ties to Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha.

Gacha, known as "El Mexicano," served as the righthand man and a dreaded
enforcer of Medellin cartel boss Pablo Escobar until he was gunned down by
police in December 1989.

An avid sports fan, he never denied his allegiance to Bogotabased
Millonarios, which has been crowned national soccer champion 13 times.

That number may have brought Los Millonarios bad luck, however, since
prosecutors said they recently discovered Gacha was one of the team's
leading shareholders.

Nearly 30 percent of its privately held shares were embargoed by the
authorities late on Wednesday on grounds that they had belonged to Gacha
and were passed on to family members after his death.

The share capital was frozen under terms of an antidrug asset forfeiture
law passed by Congress last year and will ultimately be turned over to the
government.