In the field: tour with PGR task force gives up-close glimpse of drug war.

Eradicating drug fields in Mexico is becoming an increasingly life-threatening occupation for police, because drug cartels are now breaking out the heavy artillery. BUSINESS MEXICO recently received an exclusive invitation from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) to be airlifted to the Guerrero mountains, along with heavily armed federal agents and soldiers on a dangerous mission to search for and destroy drug crops.

In a year with little rainfall and drought-like conditions in many of the traditional cultivation areas, cartels--under increasing pressure from authorities and mother nature--have become more aggressive in their tactics.

Last month, bullets pierced the frame of a PGR helicopter while it was spraying a marijuana crop in the northern state of Sinaloa. The lone pilot survived the ordeal but several of his comrades a few months earlier weren't so lucky. On March 9, five people aboard two PGR choppers died during a drug plant eradication mission when their ship crashed after it came under heavy weapons fire.

An official with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City described the latest incident as a new and worrying development. Until now, he said, drug gangs have normally reserved attacks for federal agents going after the more lucrative poppy fields, which are transformed into heroin.

"We have seen an increase in the level of aggression or counter measures taken by traffickers in the last two to three years. Over time, they've advanced and gotten more sophisticated weaponry. They sometimes used to fire at anti-drug aircraft with .22 caliber weapons or a pistol. But in this latest incident, an AK-47 was used. This says something about the resources and risks traffickers are now prepared to take," the official said on the condition that his name not be published.

TOUCHDOWN AT GUERRERO BASE

The helicopter flight to Guerrero took off from the PGR's hanger at the capital's international airport and flew an hour and 20 minutes to an isolated base in the rugged Caracol area of the southwestern state, under a frown of looming mountains.

Our guide was Lt. Col. Arnoldo Rios Salas, the PGR's director of drug crop eradication. He explained that weeks earlier, the whole area was etched in a dusty brown hue but that the seasonal rains had transformed it into a lush carpet. There, one needs trained eyes to spot the varying shades of green of the marijuana and poppy plantations. Poor peasant farmers cultivate marijuana between June and October, while the poppy plants thrive in the cooler growth cycle from November to April at higher altitudes.

The PGR base was a state-of-the-art facility with well-equipped laboratories and training and recreation areas for agents who work a 15-day-on, 15-day-off cycle. It has a large dining room, a corridor of bedrooms, a gym, swimming pool, squash courts and a medical center, which even stocks antidotes for snake bites and scorpion stings.

On-site labs are used for analyzing drug crop samples, and marijuana and poppies are grown in federal greenhouses. Our guide said many varieties of marijuana and poppy plants are harvested in Guerrero and emphasized the importance of being able to accurately calculate crop yields and their toxicity.

In another area of the base there is a flight simulator--a vital tool for pilots who routinely hover just three meters over drug fields often embedded in deep tree-lined canyons or off the sides of mountains. Our last stop was the combat simulator, furnished with an overhead projector wired to a specially adapted handgun used to improve split-second, life-saving reflexes. An image appears and agents must immediately decide whether it's a friend or foe.

After we finished the tour, Rios led us back out to the chopper to accompany agents on a drug eradication mission. We took off and began hunting for drug fields, which were often shrouded in nearly opaque mist.

Guerrero is a major cultivation area, especially for poppies, but the tentacles of drug crop cultivation extend throughout western Mexico, as far north as Sonora on the U.S. border.

It takes a PGR fleet of more than 80 aircraft to wage an effective air war against illicit drug crops. Although there are some Cessna light planes, Bell helicopters form the backbone of the fleet--die 206 version is used for spraying, while the larger 212 transports soldiers and federal agents.

According to PGR statistics, in 1990, 4,898 hectares of marijuana and heroin poppies were destroyed nationwide. That number almost tripled to 12,212 hectares last year. A hectare of land can produce one-and-a-half tons of marijuana and up to 12 kilos of opium resin annually.

TREETOP BOOBY TRAPS 

During our flight to the drug fields, Rios explained that up to 80% of plantations in Guerrero are booby-trapped with steel cables hidden in treetops intended to tangle a helicopter's propellers. He said more than 400 cables, mostly in Guerrero, have already been removed this year.

"Firstly, they started with small cables or ribbons, which they would tie across canyons. They would wrap themselves around the rotors and bum the motors up. Pilots would then have to land or abort the mission," said the DEA official.

"Then traffickers went to a series of cables, onto which they would tie red ribbons so pilots would recognize them and fly away and not spray the field. In the last year, we've seen more cables but ... the PGR has now taken counter-measures. Some of the helicopters have long pairs of clippers on the front of them to cut the cables."

The U.S. law enforcement official also said the PGR has changed its spraying tactics, which include being followed by an additional helicopter to supply "ground fire suppression" if there is an attack from below.

But the reality is that about 75% of drug crops have to be manually uprooted or hacked down by soldiers who either hike to the plantations on patrols that can last up to 20 days. At other times, they are airlifted into less accessible areas.

After circling the area, agents finally spot their target: a marijuana plantation. The pilot banks the chopper at a 45-degree angle, descending gradually while he looks for an elusive clearing in which to land.

BOB MARLEY WOULD BE TRAUMATIZED

The lush marijuana field we reached got the full works. Ignoring the swarms of biting flies, soldiers--who had arrived on foot--uprooted the surprisingly tall and distinctive plants and then cautiously backstepped as a helicopter drenched the remainder with herbicide. It takes seven liters to destroy just one hectare.

The soldiers then piled the uprooted plants and burned them in a bonfire, which emitted blue pillars of smoke. A member of the team said the smoke does not alert the public to the military's activity because the nearest village is 19 kilometers away.

Pilot Alfonso Gonzalez Zaragoza, who has worked at the PGR for 15 years, recognized the extreme danger of his job, but said despite the hazards he likes what he does. "I've been shot twice. One time, a piece of the bullet hit me in the face," he said. "I started here when I was younger and I liked the flying and the traveling."

Back at the U.S. Embassy, the DEA official not only praised the "valiant effort" of PGR agents but also the Fox administration's tenacity in fighting the drug trade and corrupt networks it creates.

"You can see that under the Fox administration, cooperation has been unsurpassed. It hasn't been better than this, and it's because Mexico and the United States recognize that drug trafficking and drug consumption are threats to the societies of both countries," he said.

James Blears is a Mexico City-based freelance writer and a correspondent for Standard Radio News in Mexico.