CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan fighter jet crashed near the Colombian border after an "illicit aircraft" likely linked to drug trafficking entered its airspace, the government said on Friday.
It was not immediately clear whether the two people aboard the Russian-made Sukhoi-30 jet had been killed. A rescue mission was launched and the cause of the Thursday night crash was being investigated.
"An illicit aircraft entered via the northwestern region on its course to the south towards the border with Colombia, an area where mafias linked to narcotrafficking want to use our territory as a distribution platform for drugs produced in the neighbouring country," Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said in a statement early Friday. (http://goo.gl/L79phE)
The government gave no further information about the illicit aircraft.
Colombia, a major cocaine producer, turns out some 300 tonnes annually. Some of it travels via smuggling routes through Venezuela. U.S. and other Western officials allege that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government, at the very least, turns a blind eye to the trade.
The incident came amid tension between the South American neighbours after Venezuela closed major border crossings in recent weeks and deported over 1,500 Colombians in what it said was a crackdown on crime.
In a briefing on Friday morning, Padrino said he had deployed troops to western towns that have been placed under a state of emergency. He added that the army wants to use ties with China and Russia to boost its capabilities.
Colombia had no immediate comment.
Maduro's foes accuse him of picking fights with Colombia in a ploy to whip up nationalistic sentiment ahead of December parliamentary elections his party is forecast to lose.
The government counters that it is trying to protect citizens from smuggling and hoarding engineered to create shortages and undermine Maduro's administration.
Venezuela's price controls and subsidies create huge discrepancies in the cost of goods, leading Venezuelans and citizens of neighbouring countries to smuggle everything from toothpaste to gasoline across borders to sell for a handsome profit.
Tensions between Bogota and Caracas rose further over the weekend when Colombia said three Venezuelan aircraft had been caught flying in its airspace without permission, a claim Venezuela characterized as "invented."
However, after third-party mediation by Ecuador and Uruguay, Maduro and his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos agreed to meet in Quito on Monday to discuss the border dispute.
(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Corina Pons; Writing by Girish Gupta and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Larry King and Jonathan Oatis)
