Word: coke
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...began Operation Primavera, the latest effort by Colombian authorities to destroy the massive cocaine-processing industry that thrives under the green canopy of the country's jungles. By the time the ten-day campaign ended last week, Operation Primavera had become the most successful bust of coke labs in Colombian history, netting a total of 26 plants capable of producing 6.6 tons of the addictive white powder a week. Though the plants never achieved that level of production, the potential output is about three times the demand of the U.S. market. Boasted a senior police official: "This is a bullet...
...other materials needed to turn coca leaves into cocaine flow from the industrialized nations to the Third World. By participating in this Faustian technology transfer, the drug-consumer nations are, in effect, providing vital raw ingredients for the scourge that bedevils them and that they often blame exclusively on coke-producing countries. "Look at all this equipment," said a Colombian police commander last week, surveying the ruins of a coke lab. "It's almost all from the U.S. And these chemicals come from all over the world. All Latin America supplies are the coca leaves and the labor...
...site of Operation Primavera's first strike was Finca la Brasilia (Brazil Ranch), reportedly owned by Alberto Toro, brother-in-law of the notorious coke lord Pablo Escobar Gaviria. Early last week the raiders descended on Hacienda Napoles, the grandest -- and gaudiest -- of Escobar's several country estates. The helicopters landed to the trumpeting of three caged elephants, part of a private zoo maintained by the drug kingpin. Not found was Escobar, one of the world's most wanted criminals, who has eluded Colombian authorities dozens of times...
Coca-Cola has not lost its fizz either. In December the company signed teen heartthrob George Michael for a diet Coke commercial, to begin this week, which features music from a previously unreleased single (his fee: a reported $4 million). In the past, Coke has recruited the Pointer Sisters and Whitney Houston. All of which raises a profound question: Which brand would Elvis have chosen...
...even halftime will provide a respite this year from Super Bowl hype. The mid-game spectacle -- featuring fireworks, 100 motorcycles and the world's largest card trick -- will be telecast, for the first time ever, in 3-D. Two commercials for diet Coke, one starring British singer George Michael, will also pop out at viewers in 3-D. A similar gimmick was tried early this month on three Fox stations during the Rose Parade, but this marks its network-TV debut...