Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jul 2001
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2001 Cox Interactive Media.
Contact:  http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Mike Williams (Cox Washington Bureau)

DRUG 'TAXES' FUND ARSENALS TRAFFICKING FUELS REBEL EXPANSION

Special Report: Small Arms, Mass Destruction

Bogota, Colombia --- In a country awash in blood from a 37-year-old civil 
war and cash from one of the world's most profitable illegal drugs, there's 
no limit to the appetite for weaponry.

Marxist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary squads battle over ideology, 
but also for control of coca fields. They earn millions in "taxes" from 
growers and traffickers --- or swap drugs directly for weapons --- building 
their arsenals and expanding their control of territory.

"In the 1980s, there was an explosion of arms moving into the country," 
said Alfredo Rangel, a security adviser to the Colombian military. "The 
demand has been sustained throughout the 1990s. In the last three years, 
the manpower of the paramilitary forces has grown by 80 percent, while the 
largest guerrilla group has grown by 40 percent."

With both sides recruiting to add to the current estimated force of 25,000 
guerrillas and 8,000 paramilitaries, demand for weapons is intense.

The arms make their way into Colombia via a spider web of routes: smuggled 
aboard ocean freighters, air-dropped into the jungle, spirited across 
remote borders in trucks or hidden in boats plying dozens of rivers, 
authorities say.

Many of the weapons come from former Soviet bloc nations and are often 
moved by Russian groups that officials say are involved in the 
drugs-for-guns trade.

But there also are American-made arms, some smuggled from Central American 
nations where they were used in conflicts in the 1980s.

Between 1995 and June 2000, Colombia's military seized more than 15,000 
small arms --- pistols, rifles, machine guns and other weapons --- along 
with 2.5 million rounds of ammunition. As with smuggled drugs, authorities 
assume they are capturing only a tiny percentage of what is out there.

"It's very difficult to control and very easy for the weapons to come in," 
said Col. Alberto Ruiz of the Colombian Judicial Police. "We are a nation 
rich in navigable rivers, mountains and forests. The Amazon is like a sea 
in and of itself."

By tapping the drug trade, Marxist guerrillas and paramilitaries have 
transformed themselves from rag-tag bands into well-funded armies. 
Colombian officials estimate the largest guerrilla group, the Armed 
Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, earns $250 million to $350 
million yearly from drugs, extortion and ransom from kidnappings.

So bold and rich are the combatants and the drug smugglers they protect 
that some tried to buy a Russian submarine that could have smuggled tons of 
cocaine and arms per trip, according to court documents in the Miami trial 
of a Russian mob boss. Others tried building their own submarine, which was 
discovered by stunned authorities in a village warehouse. Russian engineers 
reportedly directed construction of the half-completed vessel, which cost 
tens of millions of dollars.

The nexus of drug money and a bitter war has prompted a controversial U.S. 
commitment of $1.3 billion to eradicate coca and slow the source of money 
used to buy weapons and wage war.

Recent cases illustrate how the smuggling works:

In August 2000, officials in Peru announced they had broken up a ring that 
had delivered 10,000 AK-47 automatic rifles to FARC. The weapons were 
bought in Jordan by Peruvians posing as military officers, then air-dropped 
into Colombia, said Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and his security 
adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, who announced the bust with great fanfare.

But Fujimori's political opponents became suspicious that Montesinos 
himself masterminded the deal. Montesinos, now in a Peruvian prison 
awaiting trial on various charges, is rumored to have made millions in 
kickbacks on other arms deals.

In April, Colombian troops chalked up a victory in the drug war by 
capturing Luis Fernando da Costa, a Brazilian drug lord known as "Freddy 
Seashore." Da Costa allegedly supplied thousands of weapons to FARC in 
exchange for cocaine he smuggled across the Brazilian border and then to 
the United States and Europe.

Weapons also have come from Russian traffickers. According to court 
documents, Russian mobster Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg, who ran a Miami strip 
club, brokered the sale of two Soviet military helicopters to the Cali drug 
cartel, then tried to buy a Soviet navy submarine for the cartel. An 
affidavit in the case said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operatives 
identified "46 Eastern bloc aircraft, helicopter and fixed-wing," in 
Colombia being used to transport narcotics and chemicals for processing 
narcotics.

The Russian connection worries Colombian officials.

As early as 1998, Russia's ambassador to Colombia, Ednan Agayev, said 
police in his nation had learned that "Russian ringleaders" were trading 
"long- and short-barreled weapons" for Colombian drugs and that Russian 
authorities had set up cooperative channels with the FBI and Colombia.

"It's globalization," Rangel said. "Weapons come to Colombia in exchange 
for cocaine that goes to New York or Europe. It's pure capitalism, a 
primitive but effective form of barter."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom