Three die in Colombia anti-drug helicopter crash

BOGOTA, Colombia, Sep 22 (Reuters) Three Colombian police officers were killed when their helicopter crashed as it escorted airplanes fumigating fields of illegal coca leaves used to make cocaine, authorities said today.

Washington has pumped millions of dollars of military aid into Colombia to help President Alvaro Uribe fight the country's huge drug-trafficking trade and the Marxist rebels authorities say use narcotics to finance their insurgency.

''The aircraft, accompanying airplanes carrying out fumigation of coca, was returning to base... when it appeared to suffer a mechanical fault which forced it to crash,'' the national police office said in a statement.

The UH-1H helicopter went down near Villagarzon in southern Putamayo department near the border with Ecuador. The pilot was also injured in the crash.

Colombia remains the world's No. 1 cocaine exporter despite Uribe's US-backed campaign to crack down on the drug trade and left-wing rebels fighting a four-decade insurgency against the state.

Reuters DKS VP0250