EX-GENERAL -- DEA AGENTS WERE INVOLVED IN MURDERS IN COLOMBIA

A Fired Colombian General Says American DEA And Colombian Police Agents
Were Involved In The Murders Of Two Informants.

BOGOTA -- Colombian prosecutors are investigating an allegation by a fired
Army general that American DEA and Colombian police agents were involved in
the murders of two informants in a notorious case involving two tons of
cocaine.

In a document dated Sept. 27, 2003, and obtained by El Nuevo Herald,
investigating prosecutors Luis Fernando Torres Castaneda and Jesus Albeiro
Yepez Puerta say that Gen. Gabriel Diaz alleged that a third informant
"might have learned that members of the DEA and the police were probably
involved in those murders."

The document was addressed to Colombian Attorney General Luis Camilo
Osorio, who has ordered the National Unit of Anti-Narcotics and Maritime
Interdiction Prosecutions to form a special commission to investigate the
case of the two tons of cocaine.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the DEA "is in no way involved in any illegal
activities" and dismissed the investigation as routine. "The prosecutor's
office has the responsibility to review all accusations, including any
accusations that may be made by Gen. Diaz," he said.

Diaz was fired by President Alvaro Uribe on June 6 amid Colombian media
reports that he was involved in the disappearance of the cocaine shipment,
seized by police in 2002 in the Atlantic port of Barranquilla and later
returned to smugglers in exchange for a $715,000 bribe. Diaz has not been
charged in the cocaine case.

Diaz, who was commander of the 2nd Brigade based in Barranquilla and had
been accused of human rights violations in his previous assignment in the
southern Putumayo region, claimed he was forced to retire under U.S. pressures.

"The United States Embassy and the Drug Enforcement Administration
pressured my departure," he told The Herald June 18. He denied any
wrongdoing and added, "They are violating my human rights."

Diaz has claimed that he delivered to the DEA office at the U.S. Embassy in
Bogota three informants who had approached him with information about a
local drug trafficking cartel in Barranquilla.

Based on the informant's tips, Colombian police intercepted a truck in
Barranquilla in August 2002 containing the two tons of cocaine. But the
shipment, with a U.S. street value of $40 million, was later returned to
the smugglers. Two of the informants were later murdered.

Seven Barranquilla police officers were arrested and 18 were fired as a
result of the scandal.