Colombia says US soldiers smuggled weapons

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian police have arrested two American soldiers for suspected arms trafficking in the second scandal to hit the US military here in just over a month, police and the US embassy said today.

The two unidentified soldiers were found with 32,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition in a condominium in the central Colombian town of Carmen de Apicala on Tuesday, police said.

Police said they suspected the two stole the ammunition - suitable for pistols or submachine guns - from the Colombian army and planned to sell it to illegal far-right paramilitaries.

"Two US soldiers were arrested yesterday (Tuesday) in the afternoon. The embassy is working to establish the details," said an embassy spokesman who declined to give the soldiers' names or units.

But a Colombian military source, who asked not to be identified, said the men were US marksmanship instructors assigned to train Colombian troops to fight cocaine traffickers and Marxist rebels fighting a four-decade-old guerrilla war which claims thousands of lives a year.

They were based at Colombia's Tolemaida army base, a short drive from Carmen de Apicala, the source said.

"It's a lot of ammunition and it's a very suspicious case," Colombian Police commander General Jorge Castro told local radio.

Three Colombian civilians were also arrested on Tuesday in connection with the case.

Five US soldiers were arrested in the United States in late March on suspicion of trying to smuggle hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Colombian cocaine into the United States on a US military aircraft.

US diplomats privately admitted embarrassment over the March arrests, although they have had no effect on the US aid programme to its key ally in the war against cocaine.

The United States has provided more than $3 billion in mainly military aid to Colombia since 2000. US Congress has authorized the presence of up to 800 US troops as instructors and to aid the Colombians but not to take part in combat.

Up to 600 civilian contractors are also allowed here. While US casualties in Colombia have been few, three US civilian contractors have been held hostage by Marxist rebels for two years.

Far-right paramilitaries, illegal militias who target Marxist rebels and are heavily involved in cocaine trafficking, have killed thousands of civilians in recent years and have been responsible for many of the country's worst human rights abuses, including massacres and torture.

The Colombian government is trying to negotiate the demobilisation of the largest paramilitary group, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, or AUC, but accuses it of regularly violating a cease-fire. The United States classes the AUC as a "terrorist" organisation.

Under a treaty, US personnel serving in Colombia come under US jurisdiction and local courts do not have the right to sentence them.

A posting in the world's largest cocaine producing country is not free of temptation.

The wife of a US Army officer who headed anti-drug operations in Colombia was sentenced to five years in prison in 2000 for trying to mail $700,000 worth of heroin to New York. Her husband admitted he knew she was laundering drug proceeds and was sentenced to five months, angering Colombian legal officials who complained this was too lenient.

- REUTERS