Approved For Release 2000/08/09 CIA-RDP96-00789ROO3501040006-3
           COLOMBIA
           Wantedy but
           NotFound
           The leaders of the powerful
           Medellin cocaine cartel have
           become folk heroes for their
           ability to escape the relentless
           pursuit of government security
           forces, Last week Pablo Esco-
           bar Gaviria, 39,
           a leader of the
           drug ring that
           controls 80% of
           the cocaine en-
           tering the U.S.,
           pulled off one Of
           the most im_
           pressive get-
           aways. In an op-
           eration code Escobar
           named Against
                ,11o Fortress, some 600 police:
                gn'd army troops raided a ranch.
                miles outside Medellin, but.
           qScobar managed to elude
           them.
                When the police fleet of ten
           helicopters suddenly appeared,
           overhead at 6:30 a.m., one senw
           try ran to alert Escobar and oth~
           ers, while bodyguards opened
           fire with semiautomatic riflesi
           Escobar slipped away by run-
           ning through a patch of wild
           cane, scuttling across a creek
           with planks laid over it and, fi-
           nally, jumping into a speedboat
           and disappearing. A wide-scale
           ground and helicopter search
           failed to turn up Escobar, who
           is included on the U.S. Justice
           Department's list of the twelve
           most wanted Colombian drug
           traffickers. a
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           Approved For Release 2000/08/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO3501040006-3