Top Guatemala drug trafficker freed by 30 armed men

GUATEMALA CITY, July 24 (Reuters) Thirty heavily armed gunmen ambushed a van carrying one of Central America's top drug kingpins, freeing him in a brazen assault as he was en route to stand trial.

Two men believed to be among the assailants were killed and three policemen wounded in the shootout that freed alleged capo Cornelio Chilel, police spokesman Carlos Calju said yesterday.

Calju said the injured policemen were stranded in the craggy volcanic hills of San Marcos, where poppies for heroin are grown and drug traffickers operate with impunity.

''The police went into hiding in the mountains,'' Calju said.

''A group of some 500 villagers are chasing them.'' Chilel, 46, was captured last September in San Marcos, a northern border region used as a corridor for illegal drugs into Mexico and the United States.

Calju said people in the region see Chilel as a leader and want him freed. Police reinforcements were being sent to help search for the missing men, he added.

Chilel is charged with the murder of three police officers as well as drug, arms and immigrant smuggling.

The suspected trafficker was freed when men armed with automatic weapons leaped from a convoy of vehicles and blocked the path of a van transporting him through San Marcos to trial in Guatemala City.

US officials estimate over 75 per cent of the cocaine produced in Colombia passes through Central America on its way to the United States.

Drug cartels give poppy seeds to farmers in the San Marcos region and pay high prices for the flowers, which are processed into heroin in Mexico.

Chilel is thought to be a major link between powerful Mexican gangs and organized crime groups operating from Guatemala.

Another top Guatemalan trafficker, Otto Herrera, was captured in Colombia last month after trying to bribe police with 5 million dollar to set him free.

REUTERS CS PM0452