Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 1979)
Page 2B THE BATTALION MONDAY SEPTEMBER 3. 1979 Columbia cracking down on $2 billion marijuana industry By MARTIN McREYNOLDS I'nited Press International RIOHACHA, Colombia — The breeze that rustle* the palm trees is hot and damp. Caribbean waters wash the sparkling beach. But beyond the dreamy waterfront, things change East. In Riohacha’s rutted, dusty streets, swaggering men in bluejeans and straw hats mingle with Indian women from the countryside, their faces smeared with ritual black paint, their bodies wrapped in bright flow ing dresses. Accommodations for visitors are minimal in this city of 70,000 but it doesn’t matter. Strangers are ad vised to be well on their way to safer parts before sundown. This is the capital of La Guajira State and the hub of Colombia’s biggest illegal industry — growing and smuggling marijuana to the United States. It is also a key outpost in the gov ernment’s battle to chop down the drug traffic that threatens to over shadow all of the country’s legitimate business. Estimates of the total Colombian drug business vary, but it is gener ally guessed to be around $2 billion annually, a good part of which lands in the hands of international dealers based in the United States. In addition to homegrown pot, Colombia is one of the countries where cocaine from Peru and Bolivia is processed for shipment to the U.S., mainly by gangs operating out of the cities of Medellin and Cali. The w'hite powder accounts for less than half the dollar total, however, and involves a much smaller labor force than marijuana, which employs up to 150,000 Colombians. At an army base outside Riohacha, soldiers in T-shirts and fatigue trous ers stack scores of large bales wrap ped in burlap bags. Tons of “Santa Marta Gold,” prime marijuana from the slopes of the Santa Marta Mountains seized in the latest army operation, are being prepared for a bonfire of destruction. A dozen trucks confiscated in the action are lined up in a row. A few yards away are the mangled remains of a small plane that crashed on the highway near the army base, pre sumably on a pot mission that went wrong. A lot of similar flights have run into trouble since President Julio Cesar Turbay ordered the armed forces to clamp down on the drug traffic last October. Through the end of June, the armed forces had seized 80 airplanes in Northern Colombia, nears all U.S.-registered, includinga DC-7, a DC-6, a Convair and three venera ble DC-3’s, along with a vast fleet of small twin-engine planes. Of that to tal, 23 planes had crashed while at tempting dangerous landings on makeshift runways. A total of 72 boats, 308 vehicles and 879 firearms were also confis cated. During the same period. 1,169 suspects were arrested including 186 foreigners, all but a handful Ameri cans. The army says it destroyed nearly 38,000 tons of marijuana including 50,000 bales ready for shipment and the estimated yield of plants growing on 25 acres It also grabbed 2.2 mil lion amphetamine tablets ready for export and 74 pounds of cocaine ap parently bein g handled by marijuana smugglers outside the main cocaine route. “We figure we have got our hands on less than 10 percent of the total production, an army officer said grimly. Marijuana, often masked as homesteaders’ plots of corn and other crops, grows vigorously' in se cluded ravines of the Santa Marta mountains that rise abruptly from the flat La Guajira peninsula jutting into the Caribbean. Some of the plantations are huge. The army announced it recently dis covered a single area of more than 24,000 acres planted in marijuana that will take months to destroy. “In the first two weeks, 100 sol diers pulling up the plants, stacking them to dry and then burning them were able to cover only 500 acres,” the army officer said. "At that rate, it will take us two years to finish the job in this one area alone. We’re trying to get help from the agriculture department — it’s not a soldier’s job to dig up plants.” The root of the enforcement prob lem is money — bundles of dollars and pesos that convince farmers to run the risk of raising the illegal crop and tempt ill-paid police, soldiers and even judges to collaborate with the drug traffic. La Guajira has long been known in Colombia as an economically de pressed area w’here contraband was considered a normal way of life. The local populace welcomed outsiders with the same open-hearted w’armth that Tennessee mountaineers re serve for internal revenue officers. The level of violence has risen as rival gangs fight for marijuana prof its. The economy has been trans formed in an area stretching along the Caribbean coast from the historic port of Cartagena through Barran- quilla, Santa Marta and Riohacha to the traditional smuggling town of Maicao near the Venezuelan border. At Santa Marta, the country’s third biggest port and one of its popular tourist resorts, whole neighborhoods of new houses are said to be occupied by the dru; kingpins and their prosperous sub ordinates. Shootouts by rival gangs are common. “This used to be the safest place on earth, but the drug mafia has changed all that,” said a storekeeper in Santa Marta. “Now, when you walk out the door of your house, you never know if you’re coming back. You walk out, but they might carry you back.” In Barranquilla, a newsman low ered his voice when talking about the “marimberos” — the marijuana dealers. ATTENTION: Doctors, Nurses, Lab. Techs., Med. Students 30% oft on all lab coats in stock (Sale ends Sept. 8) 822-7718 VfcD* N SAITS ^ I RENTM s (across from St Joseph s Hosp.tal, Ptrwor, ’’The corruption is unbelievable, he said. “Nobody can resist the amounts of dollars the marimberos offer — nobody. But don’t say I told you that. I don’t want to turn up dead.” The marijuana, dried and wrap ped in “bultos” (bales) or “pacas” (tightly compressed bricks made in portable presses), is taken by mule train and trucks to any of the 100 or so clandestine airstrips that dot the peninsula or to countless anchorages along 300 miles of coastline. “It’s easy to make a landing strip in a few hours almost anywhere in La Guajira,” said an American source who follows the drug business in Barranquilla. “You bulldoze the brush out of the way, pack down the sandy soil and you’re ready for busi ness. Of course, there are no lights for night landings and it’s very risky. ” Prices good thru Saturday. Sept. 15 at PILGER’S TIRE & AUTO CENTER 400 E. University Dr. — College Station — 690-1724 Home Owned and Operated I'nited Pres jLU’VVOO lost his cam; in 1972 to the 1980 e by a gras: jrtfrom tl jen, jaund ofeyeas ev to unhorse year. He is: of the pros jwn good ie saturnim ted along think •jerry Brow Paulse _ with Li attention. > to Africa ai along, course, E didn’t do yhat's not ne thing with Linda and . |te House, it in a decade beffled wit lot of hope Robert Du jnce. He cou id contest. _ irald Ford |t either. Eve tube 1 think 1 television se irnation, F „ A. Some people i has a chance the 188 fnYeje'ts up and holler Senior privilege he hi Roy King, bootmaker at Holick’s puts the sole Cadets, for three years at Holick’s; on a $400 pair of riding boots. King has made been making boots since 1947. the boots, worn by seniors in the Corp of Battalion photo by joni Ral» ADVERTISING INDEX FOR SECTION B AUDIO EQUIPMENT: MISCELLANEOUS: Sound Center 3B The People s Book 2B BALLROOMS: Starlight Ballroom 4B OFFICE EQUIPMENT SUPPLIES: & CLOTHING: Otis McDonald 3B House of Jeans IB RESTAURANTS: CLUBS: Pizza Inn 5B Thirsty Turtle DIAMONDS: Diamond Broker 5B SCHOOL SUPPLIES: 6B Texas Aggie Bookstore 4B MEDICAL SUPPLIES: TIRES: Medical Sales & Rentals 2B Pilgers Tires 2B ping! The Bri Hut Ronnie’ Hition He ca el today as he ■ohn Connak ;e it. He h; ■r day when iging parties toward Bake prospect ■an right to tl has horn wit Teddy Kenn nind. He car for the pre npous lesson; for hours < s about. Fhe America red out Har aces his cam 1$^ TEXAS A&M ^ V UNIVERSITY <5© \ T© V^T AL