Source: Reuters Pubdate: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 BRAZIL SPEEDS UP SALE OF DRUG RUNNERS' ASSETS BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Fernando Henrique Cardoso Tuesday signed a decree that will speed the process whereby Brazil raises money to fight drug trafficking by auctioning seized assets, officials said. ``As the law stood, the auction of property taken from drug runners could only happen after a conviction, which takes on average between five and seven years,'' said Walter Maierovitch, the head of Brazil's new National Anti-Drugs Secretariat. ``When we got around to the auction, the planes and cars were junk,'' he said. About 100 planes, 200 trucks and several hundred cars are sitting in police compounds while the former owners await trial. Suspected drug traffickers found innocent would be reimbursed for any assets seized and sold, Maierovitch said. ''This is a pioneering move for Latin America.'' Large amounts of cocaine produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia pass through Brazil on their way to Europe and the United States. Brazil is also a producer of marijuana, grown in the country's arid northeast. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry