Pubdate: Fri, 25 Aug 2000
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2000 Associated Press
Author: Alexandra Olson, Associated Press Writer

DESOLATE FARM WITH DIRT AIRSTRIP HID MASSIVE COCAINE OPERATION IN JUNGLE

(08-25) 14:40 PDT UPATA, Venezuela (AP) -- For nearly two years, a 
nondescript abandoned farm house in the remote eastern jungles of Venezuela 
served as a sanctuary for an international drug gang smuggling Colombian 
cocaine to Europe and the United States.

This week, Venezuelan and international anti-drug agents finally outwitted 
the cartel, seizing a record 10 tons of cocaine and arresting at least 16 
people in an operation that has been a source of pride for a country at 
odds with the United States over anti-narcotics flights.

Venezuelan officials have lauded the bust, the largest in the South 
American nation's history, as proof President Hugo Chavez is serious about 
fighting drugs despite refusing to allow U.S. anti-drug planes to fly over 
Venezuelan territory -- a decision that has hurt U.S. anti-narcotics 
activities in the Caribbean.

Venezuela is a major trafficking route for Colombian cocaine bound for Europe.

Authorities are still hunting the bosses of the Los Mellizos drug gang and 
trying to determine who owned the businesses and ranches that sheltered the 
smugglers in Venezuela for nearly two years.

"The most difficult part of this investigation is still to come," Col. Jose 
Antonio Paez, second-in-command of the National Guard's anti drug unit, 
told reporters on the desolate farm.

"We still don't know who was behind all of this," Paez said, gesturing 
toward the 5,000-acre farm that has its own airstrip, presumably to receive 
cocaine from Colombia.

It took an eight-month international investigation, using sophisticated 
telephone bugging equipment and a network of informers, to find the Doble 
Uno ranch, nine miles from the nearest city, Puerto Ordaz.

The operation, dubbed Orinoco 2000, resulted in arrests in Venezuela, 
France and Italy.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration helped finance the raids, and 
Colombia, France, Britain, Italy, Greece and Panama also collaborated.

The grounds surrounding the rundown farm house show not a trace of the 
millions of dollars of cocaine that passed through the premises for months. 
Even the mile-long airstrip looks like a dirt road.

The National Guard combed the premises for two weeks before discovering 2.5 
tons of cocaine Wednesday night buried in two six-foot pits deep inside 
thickets of trees -- the latest of three seizures netting the 10 tons of 
cocaine.

Paez said the National Guard would have never found the latest haul -- 
stored in 2.2-pound paper bags -- if not for the confessions of two freshly 
nabbed suspected smugglers.

The National Guard captured the two suspects on a remote river island about 
22 miles from the ranch. On that island -- in the middle of the Orinoco 
River -- authorities first discovered 5 tons of cocaine last Friday.

Paez led 70 soldiers in pursuit of the fugitives for five days. Seven motor 
boats surrounded the island and soldiers combed the swampy land until the 
suspects were caught trying to hitch a ride with passing fishing boats.

"They couldn't hold out. They had no food and they told us that every time 
they poked their heads out they saw soldiers patrolling the grounds," Paez 
said.

The two initially pretended to be tourists but soon confessed and revealed 
the location of the pits with cocaine after being promised lighter 
sentences, Paez said.

Paez says most of those detained carry Venezuelan identity cards which he 
suspects are false. Soldiers insisted most of the detainees are Colombian. 
There is strong evidence to show that the cocaine packets were airdropped 
from Colombia, Paez said.

"The packets had fluorescent hooks which tells me that they were dropped by 
air at night," Paez said.

He said he suspects the farm was a holding spot for the cocaine which was 
then taken by land or through the Orinoco River en route to the Caribbean 
for shipment to Europe.

Paez insisted the presence of a major drug cartel operating in the country 
does not mean Venezuela has become a refuge for traffickers.

"When you find these things people say, 'so does that mean that drug 
trafficking is growing in Venezuela?' Why don't they say I'm doing my job 
better?" Paez said.
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