Colombian Police Spray Drug Crops

By JUAN PABLO TORO Associated Press Writer

EL SILENCIO, Colombia (AP)--After three years, Colombian police restarted U.S.-backed counterdrug operations in a former rebel safe haven Sunday, spraying a field of heroin poppies high in the Andean mountains.

Colombian authorities claim the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had allowed drug crops to multiply in the zone, which the government ceded to the leftist rebels to boost peace talks three years ago. But President Andres Pastrana ended the talks and on Feb. 20 ordered the military to retake the territory twice the size of New Jersey.

Sunday's spraying was the first since the FARC lost control of the zone. Such anti-drug operations had continued in other parts of Colombia.

Before the demilitarized zone was created, 125 acres in the region were devoted to heroin poppies. Today, 875 acres inside the zone and another 175 on the outskirts are planted in poppies, Gen. Gustavo Socha chief of the anti-drug police said. The area devoted to coca, the base for cocaine, has doubled to 37,500 acres.

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