Drug trade devastating Colombian forests
police

BOGOTA, The Reuters World Service via Individual Inc. : More
than 1.4 million acres (600.000 hectares) of Colombian forest are being
razed every year by drug traffickers and poor farmers planting illegal
coca and poppy crops, a senior police official said on Friday.

``The impact of drug trafficking on the environment is clear and
serious,'' said Col Leonardo Gallego, head of the antinarcotics
division of the National Police.

``The natural resources of the jungles and Andean forests are
being devastated,'' he said.

``We have to put a definitive end to this, once and for all,
because a disaster is occurring in Colombia,'' he added.

Gallego, who spoke at a forum on the environmental impact of the
drug trade, did not how the statistics were obtained.

The antinarcotics division regularly overflies forested areas
of Colombia seeking drug plantations and clandestine drug laboratories
used to make cocaine and heroin.

Gallego stressed that many of the forest areas cleared for use
as drug farms never reach the planting stage because police and military
authorities keep a close watch on them once they have been spotted from
the air.

According to the most recent statistics from the National
Police, no more than about 148,000 acres (60,000 hectares) of drug crops,
including marijuana, are currently believed to be planted across
Colombia. REUTER@

[Copyright 1997, Reuters]