Drug Traffickers May Regain Seized Property : Colombia: Supreme Court decision deals a grave blow to the nation’s anti-drug campaign.

A senior official says a recent Supreme Court decision means Colombia will have to return most if not all of the property seized from drug traffickers, dealing a grave blow to the anti-drug campaign.

Judges have already returned 33 of the 430 farms, houses and other properties--worth at least $23 million--that were confiscated by presidential decree, the official said Thursday. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Supreme Court ruling late last year overturned the presidential decree. The official’s comments indicated the government now realizes how devastating the court’s decision was.

“I think this may mean the war against traffickers is lost,” he said.

Some judges have taken bribes from alleged traffickers who want their farms back, and “those judges who resist will almost certainly be killed,” the official said.

The government’s eight-month-old war on drugs began when the leading presidential candidate was slain by traffickers. The government began confiscating properties and extraditing drug barons to the United States for trial.

At the same time, traffickers announced a counteroffensive in which 200 people have died. President Virgilio Barco Vargas’ order to seize properties of suspected traffickers was one of his main weapons in his fight against drugs. According to his decree, a federal court was to determine the final status of the properties.

Owners were to present themselves before the court and prove they had no ties to drug trafficking in order to recover their possessions.

However, the Supreme Court late last year shifted the burden of proof to the administration, ruling that no property can be permanently seized unless the owner has been found guilty of a crime.

Many of the owners are charged with crimes but have not been found guilty. Traffickers have traditionally bribed or intimidated Colombian judges.

Since August, 15 people have been extradited, but authorities have not captured many people considered leading traffickers, including reputed Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar. That drug cartel is considered among the leading groups smuggling cocaine into the United States.

“Pablo Escobar has not yet been found guilty of any crime. Legally he has a right to his properties,” said the official.

The government official accused Barco of lacking foresight in his handling of the anti-drug campaign.

“Before the Supreme Court decision, I told President Barco that we should target the 50 farms that we knew belonged to Pablo Escobar,” he said.

The seized farms could provide land for 20,000 peasant families if the state could carry out a program to redistribute the property, he said.

But he said such a program is virtually impossible.