Peru captures suspected guerrilla drug traffickers

LIMA, Aug 14 (Reuters) Peruvian police have arrested at least 20 suspected Shining Path guerrillas linked to cocaine trafficking in a series of jungle raids, the government said todayay.

More than 200 special forces agents took part in the sweeps yesterday to try to capture 48 people tied to the boss of a Shining Path faction who is known as Artemio.

Some escaped but President Alan Garcia claimed it was a major blow against the Maoist insurgency group.

''Archaic communists who are antisocial and bent on ending the economic and social advancement of Peru have been knocked down once again,'' he said today.

Vestiges of the Shining Path, which led a bloody rebellion that killed thousands of civilians until its leadership collapsed in the early 1990s, have in recent years become involved in running drugs.

Officials say the Shining Path have a few small but active groups split between Peru's two main coca growing areas, one in the Huallaga valley in the north and the other in south-central Peru.

Colombia, Peru and Bolivia have vast regions for growing coca, a traditional crop in the Andes that is also refined to make cocaine.

The Shining Path nearly disappeared after its leader, Abimael Guzman, who once taught philosophy to university students, was arrested in 1992 and later jailed.

Reuters RSA DB2329