ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 7, 1990                   TAG: 9005070286
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA                                LENGTH: Short

COCAINE SEIZURE BIGGEST EVER

In three days of lightning raids on jungle drug labs and airstrips, soldiers seized more than 13 tons of cocaine in the biggest international drug seizure ever, Colombian authorities say.

Authorities said troops found silos stuffed with cocaine awaiting shipment to the United States. One silo alone was said to contain 20,000 pounds of the drug. The raids in the sparsely populated southeastern state of Meta brought to 110,000 pounds the amount of cocaine seized by security forces in the last 16 months, authorities said.

They began Thursday, ended Saturday and netted 26,400 pounds of cocaine, authorities said. Previously, the record for an international cocaine seizure was 22,000 pounds found in remote southern Colombia six years ago.

An army general said the network of laboratories and clandestine runways found by the soldiers were believed to belong to the powerful Medellin cartel. -Associated Press 


 by CNB