Pubdate: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News Contact: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 Fax: (408) 271-3792 Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ THOUSANDS ARRESTED, TONS OF DRUGS SEIZED IN SWEEPS Smashing cocaine laboratories and burning marijuana fields, police in 32 countries and territories have arrested thousands of suspects and seized tons of drugs in three weeks of U.S.-orchestrated raids, officials said Tuesday. Police arrested 2,876 people and seized more than 20 tons of cocaine during the operation, said Michael Vigil, Caribbean director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which coordinated the raids. The operation, from Oct. 27 to Nov. 19, was the third and biggest in a series of raids that began last year, officials said. Police carried out more than 39,000 searches and raids, seized 29 tons of marijuana and 82,170 tablets of "ecstasy," dismantled 94 drug factories and confiscated 197 guns. They seized 100 tons of chemicals for drug-making and burned more than 9 square miles of fields of marijuana, heroin poppy and coca plants used for making cocaine. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager