[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 65 (Thursday, May 6, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E892]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 A COURAGEOUS DRUG FIGHTER AND HIS MEN

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                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 6, 1999

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, today's Miami Herald recounts the battle by 
the Colombia National Police (CNP) in a real war on drugs in that 
troubled nation. In attacking a major cocaine complex in Colombia, the 
anti-drug police (DANTI) under the leadership of General Jose Serrano 
and Colonel Leonardo Gallego took hostile fire, yet they managed to 
destroy a complex capable of producing tons and tons of deadly drugs, 
and seized a ton of cocaine and large quantities of precursor 
chemicals. The lab complex was capable of producing 8 tons of cocaine 
per month.
  The DANTI used aged Huey helicopters without the proper Forward 
Looking Infra Red (FLIR) equipment that could have foretold the trouble 
that they would face on the ground from the right wing paramilitary run 
cocaine complex. Despite the lack of adequate helicopters and what the 
police really need in defensive equipment, they still prevailed. We are 
indeed fortunate to have allies like this in our common battle against 
illicit drugs in our hemisphere.
  Just last Friday, along with my colleagues in the House, 
Representatives Burton, Mica and DeLauro and Senator Dodd, I traveled 
to the Sikorsky plant in Connecticut to attend the ceremony giving 
General Serrano what he and his anti-drug police need to fight a real 
war on drugs. The log book for six of the world renown and effective 
Sikorsky Blackhawk utility helicopters were turned over to General 
Serrano and Colonel Gallego, the head of DANTI. These Blackhawk 
choppers will give these brave, courageous men what they need and 
should have had years ago.
  One can only wonder what results we might have seen from the CNP if 
we had provided these Blackhawks sooner rather than later. I ask that 
the Miami Herald account of yesterday's operations in Colombia be 
inserted at this point in the Record, and I ask my colleagues to note 
what good and courageous men do in a real war on drugs.

                  [From the Miami Herald, May 5, 1999]

        Colombian Police Fight Off Gunfire To Destroy Coke Labs

                            (By Tim Johnson)

       Bogota, Colombia--Fighting off gunfire from paramilitary 
     forces, an anti-narcotics strike force on Wednesday raided 
     what police described as one of the most sophisticated 
     cocaine-processing complexes in Colombia's history.
       Police said they destroyed three cocaine-processing 
     laboratories capable of producing eight tons of cocaine a 
     month.
       ``This is impressive. in my professional life, I have seen 
     a lot of laboratories. But this is beyond imagination,'' said 
     National Police Chief Rosso Jose Serrano, soaked in sweat 
     after leading 300 officers on the jungle raid.
       Serrano said the laboratories, discovered in a wooded area 
     in the Magdalena River Valley near the town of Puerto Boyaca, 
     were protected by rightist paramilitary forces.
       Paramilitary forces have long been rumored to be involved 
     in Colombia's huge drug trade, but their direct link to such 
     a major processing site provides starting evidence of how 
     deeply they are enmeshed.
       The discovery further complicates Colombia's dismal 
     security situation and underscores the difficulties of 
     fighting the cocaine trade. The 15,000-member Revolutionary 
     Armed Forces of Colombia--bitter enemies of the paramilitary 
     forces--also derive hundreds of millions of dollars a year 
     from protecting coca crops and laboratories, mostly in the 
     eastern plains.
       Backed by 10 artillery-equipped helicopters, 300 members of 
     an anti-narcotics force swooped down on the complex around 
     dawn, police said.
       ``In the precise moment we arrived, they were in the middle 
     of processing cocaine. We couldn't tell how many people were 
     there, but there was an exchange of gunfire,'' police Col. 
     Ramon Pelaez said.
       Workers fled the scene as helicopters landed a little less 
     than a mile from the laboratories, Serrano said. No arrests 
     were made.
       The laboratories, some up to four stories high, were 
     covered by thick forest, Serrano said. Sleeping facilities 
     indicated at least 200 people were employed at the site.
       Serrano said the stench of ether--used to process the 
     drug--hung over the complex.
       Police said they found 150 tons of chemicals, a ton of pure 
     cocaine, generators capable of providing power to a town of 
     5,000 people, gas ovens to process the cocaine and documents 
     that provided valuable clues.
       ``We made an estimate that the structure is worth $5 
     million,'' Serrano said. ``It impressed me because I've seen 
     a lot. But these were very well camouflaged. You passed over 
     in a helicopter and you couldn't see them.''
       Serrano said the site included a sophisticated quality-
     control facility.
       He said the laboratories, each one protected by control 
     towers, were spread over more than seven square miles.
       Serrano said he believed the laboratories were run by 
     paramilitaries with remnants of the dismantled Cali and 
     Medellin cartels, which at their height were the largest 
     criminal organizations in the world. Colombia produces about 
     80 percent of the world's cocaine.
       The site appeared to rival two other huge complexes 
     destroyed by police in the past.
       In March 1984, authorities were stunned by a massive jungle 
     complex known as Tranquilandia, with a network of 19 
     laboratories. Police found 13.8 tons of cocaine at the 
     facility, worth more than $1 billion in street sales. They 
     later calculated that the complex could produce 300 tons of 
     refined cocaine a year.
       In early 1997, authorities found more than eight tons of 
     cocaine at a processing facility in eastern Meta state that 
     became known as Villa Coca.
       That complex was also virtually an entire village, with 22 
     crude buildings, an all-weather airstrip, a control lower and 
     455 tons of chemicals used in refining cocaine.
       In other news, the head of the National anti-Narcotics 
     Office, Ruben Olarte Reyes, was forced from office by 
     President Andres Pastrana amid charges that his brother had 
     laundered money for drug traffickers.
       An angry Olarte contended that he was being railroaded out 
     of office and that his brother had rented a house without 
     knowing that its owner was sought by authorities as a 
     suspected drug dealer.

     

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