MEXICO CITY -- (AP) -- A former state police chief from Baja California Sur has
 been sentenced to 16 years in prison for helping a plane carrying 15 tons of
 cocaine land in Mexico in 1995.

 Under the sentence issued Tuesday, Fernando Gastelum Lara will also have to
 pay a $18,000 fine, the federal attorney general's office said Wednesday.

 The attorney general's office said the airplane landed near Bahia de Todos Santos
 in neighboring Baja California state, on Dec. 5, 1995. It had come from Colombia
 with the cocaine.

 It said Gastelum later participated in dismantling the plane and burning it to hide
 any trace of drug trafficking.

 The attorney general's office said it will appeal the sentence, which it considers
 too lenient.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald