COLOMBIAN POLICE IN DRUGS SCANDAL

Two police chiefs have been sacked in Colombia after cocaine with a
potential street value of up to $3m (UKP1.6m) vanished from a huge drugs
haul.

Several officers are also in custody, the head of the National Police
said.

Officers last week netted two tonnes of cocaine near the border with
Ecuador but 37kg of the haul are now missing.

Colombia's police force has been shaken by frequent scandals,
including last year when officers were found selling drugs back to
traffickers.

Embarrassing

Colombia's top police chief, Gen Jorge Daniel Castro, has said he is
"pained and shamed" by developments.

"The police officers who were unfortunately mixed up in this very
embarrassing incident have been fired and arrested," Gen Castro announced.

He said the police commander and his deputy in the southern province
of Narino had been sacked.

Officials believed they had destroyed all the cocaine seized last week
in the city of Ipiales near the Ecuadorean border. The drugs formed
part of a total of eight tons discovered around the country - the
biggest haul for years.

But then the authorities caught a police officer carrying 1kg of the
drug that came from the Ipiales raid. Subsequent inquiries revealed
that around 37kg were missing.

Gen Castro took over the police force last year after a series of
scandals. These included accusations that officers took bribes to
return drugs to traffickers.

Colombia is the world's biggest cocaine producer and a major supplier
of heroin to the US.