BOGOTA, Aug. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The Colombian Anti-Narcotics Police found 4 tons of explosives aboard two planes that were utilized to carry drugs, in an operation in the northern Colombian department of Bolivar, police sources said Wednesday.

    Colombian Police Director, general Jorge Castro, revealed that in the action two persons were captured and the explosives seemingly belonged to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), operating in the area.

    The planes were immobilized at Santodomingo, San Pablo municipality, where there is also a presence of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

    In recent weeks, the authorities have seized large quantities of explosives in various parts of the country. There have been alerts on possible terrorist attacks all over the country, as President Alvaro Uribe will complete his second year in office on Aug. 7.

    The AUC, mainly funded by landowners and drug dealers, was founded in April 1997 to fight left-wing guerrillas who also triedto control plantations and sales of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine.

    Colombia has been bogged down in a four-decade-old civil war, in which leftist rebels, far-right paramilitary and government troops fight one another, with an average of 3,500 people being killed every year. Enditem