DOLPHINS SLAUGHTERED AS COCAINE SMUGGLERS TAKE TO TUNA FISHING

TENS of thousands of dolphins are being slaughtered by Latin American
gangs using the fishing industry as cover for smuggling cocaine into
the United States and on to other countries, including Britain.

US anti-narcotics officers acknowledge that crime syndicates in
Colombia and Mexico have bought up tuna fleets and canneries in South
and Central America.

The boats are used to transport the cocaine - known as "white tuna" -
and the fishing companies provide a means of laundering the profits.

Ben White, the international co-ordinator of the Washington-based
Animal Welfare Institute, said that the gangs used fishing methods
most countries had banned because of the disastrous effect they have
on dolphins and porpoises.

"The drug cartels don't care how they catch the tuna so they don't
fish in a dolphin-friendly way," he said. One technique involves
dropping stun grenades from a helicopter on to dolphins as they follow
shoals of tuna. The grenades concuss the marine life. Entire schools
of dolphin can die as fishermen pull the tuna on board in nets.

In recent years, the gangs have bought up entire fishing fleets and
now have hundreds of boats based in Latin America. The practice was
alluded to in the Steven Soderbergh film about the drugs trade,
Traffic, starring Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones and Benicio
Del Torro.

Mr White said: "The boats allow the cartels to carry thousands of tons
of cocaine between countries under the guise of a legitimate business
and, in the process, they have killed millions of dolphins."

Three months ago, the Mexican navy, assisted by the US Coast Guard Law
Enforcement Detachment, seized its largest cocaine haul - on board a
tuna fishing trawler, the 180ft Macel. The boat was loaded with 10
tons of cocaine, with a street value of about UKP210 million, hidden
under several tons of yellow-fin tuna. The 19 crew members were
arrested and are awaiting trial in Mexico.

Mr White said that the worst-hit area was the eastern tropical
Pacific, a triangular area between San Diego, Costa Rica and Hawaii.
Latin American tuna fishermen are estimated to be killing more than a
million dolphins a year in this area. Its once healthy dolphin
population is now "dangerously low".

Dolphins, porpoises and whales are also being killed by toxic
fluorescent chemicals that drug-runners use to show where cocaine
packages are being dropped in the Pacific. Hundreds of the creatures
have been washed up dead on beaches, poisoned by the marker substance
that releases cyanide as it breaks down in the sea.

Maria Elena Sanchez, of the Group of 100, a Mexican environmental
organisation, said: "These animals don't have to die. There is a
feeling of rage and helplessness that this is happening."

Colombian boats and planes frequently drop large quantities of cocaine
packages into the ocean. They are picked up by Mexican drug gangs
posing as tuna fishermen who then take the haul to US ports or return
to their own country to smuggle it across the border.

An official from the US Drugs Enforcement Agency said: "We are aware
of this problem and we are doing everything we can to stop cocaine
being brought into the United States."

Mr White said that the US government could be more effective in
tackling the problem by curbing the trade in tuna caught using methods
destructive to dolphins. He added: "It's clear that Washington knows
what's going on, but as long as they keep turning a blind eye, then a
million dolphins a year are going to continue to be killed to help
line the pockets of drug barons."