Pubdate: Tue, 23 Aug 2005
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2005 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Steven Dudley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

COLOMBIA

DRUG EVIDENCE AGAINST REBELS STACKING UP

For Decades, Colombia's Shadowy FARC Rebel Group Was Suspected Of 
Drug-Trade Activity. Now, Though, Colombian And Foreign Authorities Are 
Arresting Rebels In Trafficking Cases.

BOGOTA - As far as drug busts go, this one was huge: seven tons of cocaine 
found in a small underground compartment at the rear of a farmhouse in 
central Venezuela.

But as important as the drugs were the armbands also found at the site last 
year -- from the 16th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, 
or FARC.

Accusations that the Marxist guerrilla group, which has been fighting the 
Colombian government for more than four decades, was linked to the drug 
trade go back to the 1980s. But until recently there was little evidence 
the rebels were moving cocaine through foreign countries on its way to the 
United States and Europe, and efforts to prosecute its members for those 
kinds of crimes proved nearly impossible.

That is changing. Increasingly, FARC guerrillas have become a target of 
Colombian and foreign drug prosecutors. Eight rebels currently face 
indictments in the United States. Of those, two mid-level FARC commanders, 
including Ricardo Palmera, alias Simon Trinidad, already were extradited to 
Washington in recent months to face charges of drug trafficking, among others.

The new evidence reflects the relative success of a massive military 
campaign against FARC strongholds in the southeast of the country -- a 
region known for its coca farms and cocaine processing -- financed in large 
part by the $3 billion in U.S. aid to Colombia over the last four years.

Security forces have seized 17 tons of refined cocaine and semi-processed 
coca base, according to government reports, and overrun FARC facilities 
allegedly used to meet with large-scale drug traffickers.

Compounds Captured

The government has captured elaborate compounds "complete with air 
conditioning," U.S. Ambassador William Wood told The Herald. "Where [rebel] 
leaders met with drug traffickers to finalize deals."

Several FARC fronts -- fighting columns deployed in broad regions -- have 
been tied to trafficking by U.S. and Colombian authorities. Indeed, the 
rebels have long admitted to collecting protection payments from drug 
producers and traffickers, just as they extort ranchers, farmers, and 
businesses to finance their war.

The FARC's 14th Front, which operates in the southern province of Caqueta, 
has long been known as the center of the rebels' drug operations and, more 
recently, efforts to export cocaine, authorities claim.

A mid-level commander of the 14th Front known as Comandante Sonia was the 
other FARC leader extradited to Washington to await trial on drug charges. 
She is suspected of keeping watch over a vast network of rivers used to 
move tons of cocaine headed for foreign markets. Her real name has been 
variously reported as Omaira Rojas or Nayibe Rojas.

And a former 14th Front commander, Jose Benito Cabrera, alias Fabian 
Ramirez, has been indicted in the United States for allegedly masterminding 
the network. Cabrera's brother, Erminso Cuevas Cabrera, was recently 
arrested in Colombia and charged with drug trafficking.

The 16TH Front

But it was the 16th Front, based largely in the far eastern provinces of 
Vichada and Guainia along the Venezuelan and Brazilian borders, that was 
allegedly exporting the seven tons of cocaine seized in Venezuela last year.

And it's the 16th Front that has garnered most of the authorities' recent 
attention.

"There are components within the FARC and the 16th Front that are utilizing 
their position to traffic drugs, and these commanders have control, 
regionally, to do so," said one U.S. anti-drug official who asked to remain 
anonymous because of the sensitivity of the ongoing investigations.

The discovery of the seven tons of cocaine in the southwestern Venezuelan 
state of Bolivar was but one example of the 16th Front's extended reach.

In February, authorities surprised a group of kidnappers who were holding 
Maura Josefina Villareal, the mother of former Florida Marlins pitcher 
Ugueth Urbina.

During the raid, police freed Villareal, captured a suspected member of the 
16th Front and seized 600 kilos of cocaine.

The suspect, Juan Martinez Vegas, was extradited to Colombia to face 
charges of kidnapping and rebellion. One official in the government's 
Administrative Security Directorate, similar to the FBI, said Martinez 
Vegas was a "very important" member of the Front who trafficked drugs for 
guns in Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia.

In 2001, Colombian authorities captured a Brazilian drug trafficker, Luiz 
Fernando da Costa, in eastern Vichada province, where he had been in close 
contact with the 16th Front and its top commander, Tomas Medina, alias 
Negro Acacio.

During the raids that led to the capture, authorities found more than 60 
cocaine refining laboratories, 22 airstrips, 16 rebel camps, and papers 
allegedly showing da Costa-FARC deals involving cocaine traded for weapons.

"Negro Acacio is utilizing his position as a commander to traffic drugs," 
the U.S. counter-drug official said.

Medina is one of the FARC members facing U.S. indictments. Cabrera, Medina 
and Jorge Briceno, alias Mono Jojoy, one of the top FARC military 
commanders, are the highest-level rebels facing indictments. During the 
Vichada raids, authorities reportedly intercepted radio communications in 
which Briceno orders Medina to protect the Brazilian trafficker.

Difficult Cases

Still, building prosecutions against FARC members for trafficking drugs 
remains difficult. Witnesses and associates are hard to find. Da Costa, 
jailed in Brazil, insists the FARC had nothing to do with drug trafficking.

One FARC member extradited to the United States for drug trafficking, 
Nelson Vargas Rueda, also an alleged member of the 16th Front, was found 
not guilty in a Washington, D.C., court last year and returned to Colombia.

And a U.S. federal investigator, speaking anonymously because of the 
sensitivity of the case, said that the drug case against the FARC's Palmera 
is very weak.

Army and prosecution officials here say they have no doubts that the FARC 
has turned into a virtual drug cartel.

But proving it may be a difficult matter.
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