Pubdate:   9/1/97

GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  Eight heavily armed men wearing Treasury Police
uniforms burst into a federal police station and freed an accused Colombian
drug dealer, police said Monday. 

Colombian Hernando Mauricio Ramirez, who was being tried on drug charges, was
freed late Sunday from the station where he was being held in Puerto Barrios,
145 miles northeast of Guatemala City, the capital. 

The armed men also freed Fredy Amilcar Popol Perez, accused of kidnapping and
extortion. Seven other men also escaped through doors left open during the
jailbreak, police director Angel Conte Cojulu said. 

Police set up roadblocks throughout the region and were combing the area for
the fugitives.