Bolivian police shoot down drug smugglers' plane

LA PAZ, Aug 21 (Reuters) Bolivian anti-drug police shot down a plane in which traffickers were trying to smuggle at least 124 kg of cocaine, killing the pilot and injuring a passenger, authorities said today.

The Cessna crashed on Monday after drug smugglers and police traded gunshots in the eastern province of Santa Cruz, where drug traffickers often use secondary roads and flat areas as landing strips, Col. Franz Lea Plaza of the anti-narcotics squad told Reuters.

He said the smugglers shot at police after they were surprised loading the aircraft with cocaine. Several people fled in two vehicles while the plane exploded after being shot at as it took off.

The smugglers left 122 kg of cocaine behind, and police later recovered (2 kg of the drug from the wreckage, he said.

''Probably there was much more cocaine that burned with the plane,'' Lea Plaza said.

The pilot was burned to death and the other person aboard was hospitalized with serious burns. The survivor is a Brazilian citizen, the colonel said.

Bolivia is the world's third-largest producer of cocaine, after Colombia and Peru.

Reuters CS VP0320