Anti-drugs police in the Andean country found a cocaine laboratory in the home of priest Valentin Mejillones.

His son and a Colombian couple were also detained.

The stash of liquid cocaine seized in the raid was valued at $240,000.

Mejillones told local media he had been tricked by the Colombians, and Vice President Alvaro Garcia said Morales had not chosen the priest to preside at the traditional swearing-in ceremony at the sacred Tiwanaku ruins.

"He was a person who moved within the Andean religious structure," Garcia told reporters. "Whether he's a priest or not, if he's committed a crime, he won't get any kind of protection when he faces justice."

Morales, an Aymara Indian and former coca farmer, was sworn in as Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006.

On the eve of his inauguration at the presidential palace, he donned a ceremonial red poncho as Mejillones presented him with a staff of command representing the 36 nationalities of Bolivia's indigenous majority.

Bolivia is the world's third-biggest cocaine producer, but limited coca cultivation is legal and leaves of the plant are commonly chewed or brewed in a tea to ward off the effects of altitude.

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Fri May 24 14:18:50 SAST 2013 ::

Jul 30, 2010

AndyC

thats why i just believe in God and not priest ....... nabo abantu and they have to get their own somehow ........
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Jul 30, 2010

MakhosiL

Enzenjani makungasakolekwa esontweni, he becomes an entrepreneur.Lol
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Jul 30, 2010

ODB

Nna kere VIVA LA-PRIEST @least he ddn't rape a boy!hihihi...sori i was jst thinking loud
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Jul 31, 2010

TjoVtjo

Well I'd like to say he was a bad apple, but I can't. Fact is the church has made most of its wealth from ripping off the poor, selling something that no-one can prove. Over and above that, they have the biggest racket thie world has ever seen, and yet we all go there once a week, and even teach our children that they are the way to the truth. This guy, well he just got carried away.
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