US drug spies in the sky

Awacs early warning aircraft patrol the region

By BBC News Online's Simon Fraser

The Peruvian air force's attack on a missionary plane in its airspace places US anti-drug surveillance flights in the area firmly centre stage.

Washington has acknowledged that one of its pilots helped Peru locate the aircraft, which was shot down over the Amazon with the loss of a US woman and her baby daughter.

It seems both the US and Peru mistook the Cessna for a drug smuggling plane.

Peru and others act on US intelligence

The United States has a long history of airborne intelligence gathering in the region, part of its continuing struggle to stem the flow north of illegal narcotics.

Defence officials say "routine and ongoing" anti-drug operations take place along the Andean range.

Involvement in the monitoring programme takes in a number of US agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The plane was shot down near Pebas

A wide variety of intelligence gathering planes is used.

Awacs radars, P-3 Orions and other aircraft regularly scour the skies over Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, looking for suspicious small planes that could be used for drug trafficking.

Local military authorities are then alerted and warplanes sent to intercept them.

Key ally

The rules of engagement say Peruvian fighters must try to establish radio contact and make a suspect aircraft land for inspection before opening fire.

Shootings of aircraft carrying suspected drug traffickers are not new.

Missionary plane: Mistaken for drug smugglers

Between 1994 and 1997, Peru shot down about two dozen planes which it said were on their way to Colombian cocaine refineries from the Peruvian Amazon.

Since the early 1990s, Peru has been a key US ally in the war on drug trafficking.

It was once the world's leading producer of coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine.

Coca was supplied in vast quantities to drug cartels in neighbouring Colombia.

Much of the resulting cocaine went to the United States, the world's biggest consumer of the drug.

Peru progress

The US now hails Peru's coca eradication efforts as a success. Most recent CIA data shows coca production falling there for the fifth consecutive year.

Twenty years of trying to stop or even dent the flow of drugs from Colombia have been much less successful.

More than 500 tonnes of cocaine are estimated to reach the US from there every year.

Plan Colombia was unveiled last year, under which the US is providing $1.3bn of mainly military aid to help Bogota beat the drug barons.