The World - News from Dec. 19, 1986

Police in Bogota raided an apartment believed owned by drug traffickers and in a gun battle killed four men and a woman they believe were linked to the assassination of a prominent newspaper editor, Guillermo Cano, by two men on a motorcycle. President Virgilio Barco, blaming traffickers for Cano’s murder, issued decrees making it easier for authorities to crack down on them. He ordered stiffer penalties for use of illegal firearms and agreed to allow the army and police to destroy marijuana and coca fields and cocaine laboratories without a judge’s order.