Colombian police find 10 million dollar in drug cash

BOGOTA, Feb 15 (Reuters) Colombian authorities found more than 10 million dollar stashed behind a closet in a Cali apartment, bringing to nearly million the sum of cash and gold seized this year from the city's drug lords, police said today.

The region around the western city of Cali is home to the infamously violent Norte del Valle cocaine cartel, which is accused of exporting about 500 tonnes of the white powder since 1999, worth about 10 billion dollar.

The packets of 100 dollar bills were found on Wednesday in a luxury apartment building near the spot where drug boss Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela was captured, police told reporters. He was sentenced last year to 30 years in US federal prison.

The confiscation of wealth hidden in Cali apartments over the past six weeks is the biggest haul of drug money in the history of Colombia, the world's top cocaine exporter.

Experts estimate Colombia, in the grip of a four-decade-old guerrilla war that kills and displaces thousands every year, makes about 600 tonnes of cocaine annually.

Last year, 140 Colombian soldiers were sentenced to prison for pocketing 16 million dollars in cash they found in a jungle camp of left-wing rebels linked to the drug trade.

Reuters SSC DB2257