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Honduran police: drug smuggling up since coup
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-15 13:45

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Drug trafficking has increased in this Central American nation since the US limited military cooperation to protest a June coup, Honduras' top anti-narcotics officer said Wednesday.

More aircraft carrying drugs from South America have landed in Honduras since the June 28 coup that toppled President Manuel Zelaya, Aristides Gonzalez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said 14 such planes landed in the country between January and June, compared to at least 10 in just the past month.

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Police have been unable to stop drug-smuggling planes without the help of US helicopters and radar technology, Gonzalez said, adding that police have only found abandoned planes.

With US help "we captured planes with drugs and even the crew," Gonzalez said. "Now we only get to the place to find burned planes, or people who tell us a plane landed and took off 20 minutes later."

The administration of US President Barack Obama has suspended more than $40 million in non-humanitarian aid to pressure the government of interim President Roberto Micheletti to restore Zelaya to power. The US has also halted high-level contacts, including those related to long-standing joint efforts against the smuggling of South American cocaine through Honduras.

The US Embassy did not immediately respond to Gonzalez's remarks. It said previously that some counter-drug cooperation is still occurring despite the official policy of no-contact with the interim government.

American forces and Hondurans work side by side at the Soto Cano Air Base, part of a network of multinational counter-drug centers in the region for tracking and pursuing smugglers.

Air Force Lt. Jennifer Richard, a spokeswoman for the US task force at Soto Cano, told AP last month that military-to-military contact with the Honduran armed forces is limited to maintaining the base.

Last week, US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, told AP during a visit to Honduras that the lack of anti-narcotics cooperation between the two countries "harms US security."