Colombia has asked Britain to help tackle a smuggling problem that's believed to cost the Colombian treasury nearly a hundred-million dollars a year.

But it's not cocaine leaving Colombia, rather British whisky and cigarettes being smuggled in via Caribbean islands.

The Colombian foreign trade minister Carlos Ronderossays there's also overwhelming evidence that the contraband is used to launder profits by cocaine and heroin cartels, and so he's asking British customs officials for help in curbing the illegal trade.

The BBC correspondent in Colombia says health workers hope better policing will push up prices, and so reduce consumption in a country where twelve per cent of the population suffers alcohol abuse.