COLOMBIAN POLICE SPRAY DRUG CROPS

EL SILENCIO, Colombia -- After three years, Colombian police restarted
U.S.-backed counterdrug operations in a former rebel safe haven
Sunday, spraying a field of heroin poppies high in the Andean mountains.

Colombian authorities claim the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, had allowed drug crops to multiply in the zone,
which the government ceded to the leftist rebels to boost peace talks
three years ago. But President Andres Pastrana ended the talks and on
Feb. 20 ordered the military to retake the territory twice the size of
New Jersey.

Sunday's spraying was the first since the FARC lost control of the
zone. Such anti-drug operations had continued in other parts of Colombia.

Before the demilitarized zone was created, 125 acres in the region
were devoted to heroin poppies. Today, 875 acres inside the zone and
another 175 on the outskirts are planted in poppies, Gen. Gustavo
Socha chief of the anti-drug police said. The area devoted to coca,
the base for cocaine, has doubled to 37,500 acres.

"They have been fortifying themselves and financing themselves with
drug trafficking money," Socha said standing amid the bright red
flowers that produce a gum that's used to make heroin.

Socha admitted he didn't know if the FARC controlled this particular
125 acre plot on the side of a mountain 9,900 feet above sea level.
But he said that no one could have grown illegal crops in the area
without the acceptance of the rebels.

A State Department report released Friday estimated the FARC make $300
million a year by taxing the drug trade in areas they control.

Herbicides rained down on the poppy field from two crop dusters,
accompanied by six Black Hawk helicopters to protect the mission from
rebels who in the past have fired on the fumigation planes.

The United States has given Colombia more than $1 billion dollars in
military equipment and training since 2000. The aid is limited to the
counter-drug effort.

The Colombian government has petitioned the United States to ease the
restrictions on the aid package to free up the 60 U.S.-provided
helicopters and 2,000 Green Beret-trained soldiers to battle the
guerrillas directly.

Colombia produces 90 percent of the world's cocaine and 70 percent of
the heroin used in the United States.