‘Mr Big’ too big

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 6

‘Mr Big’ too big

NZPA-Reuter La Paz The Bolivian Interior Minister, Mr Mario Roncal, said yesterday that the country’s most wanted drug trafficker was more powerful than the Government. Mr Roncal said that Roberto Suarez Gomez, wanted in Bolivia and the United States on drug trafficking charges, was a very complex case for the Government, “because the economic and belligerent power of the cocaine drug traffickers exceeds the possibilities of the State.” Mr Suarez Gomez, dubbed the “king of cocaine” in Bolivia, told reporters at a secret rendezvous last week in a remote jungle village that he had sought a meeting with the Bolivian President, Dr Hernan Sites Zuazo. He asserted that he had the means to solve the country’s economic crisis. His personal fortune is estimated at more than ?US4OO million. The reporters said that Mr Suarez Gomez’s gang had planes equipped with missile launchers. Mr Roncal said last month that the police had launched a hunt for Mr Suarez Gomez, and the Information Minister, Mr Mario Rueda Pena, said yesterday that the Army had told Dr Siles Zuazo that it was willing to eradicate drug trafficking in Bolivia. The Government has pledged to step up its fight against cocaine trafficking and the growing of coca leaves, the drug’s base.