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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Cocaine-Laden Plane Seized in Paraguay |
| 2004-11-25 |
| Paraguayan police captured a leading Brazilian drug trafficking suspect after a gunbattle with the occupants of a cocaine-laden plane near the border with Brazil, authorities said. Anti-narcotics police said a load of about 880 pounds of cocaine was seized, the biggest haul in Paraguay since 820 pounds of cocaine was confiscated near the Bolivian border in 1990. The Brazilian suspected was identified as Ivan Mezquita. Authorities said he was captured with four other Brazilian nationals Wednesday as the light plane made a refueling stop on a farm some 420 miles north of Asuncion. Paraguay's anti-narcotics chief, Commissioner Aldo Pastore, said shots were traded as drug agents swarmed around the plane on a small landing strip near the Paraguayan community of Carmelo Peralta, a farming area close to the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso Do Sul. Investigators believe the cocaine was bound from Colombia for Brazil, Pastore said, speaking by telephone with The Associated Press. Authorities said Mezquita would be taken before Paraguayan immigration officials and probably would be expelled to Brazil. |
| Posted by:Fred |