21.   But the admission bolstered the claims of Puerto Rican politicians who say the military has acted irresponsibly and should stop using Vieques island for live bombing.

22.   Drug traffickers have been known to use the island as a way station for shipments bound for the United States.

23.   Drug smugglers increasingly are using Caribbean islands as transit points to smuggle drugs from producer countries in Central America to consumers in the United States and Europe.

24.   Drug traffickers often use the island as a way station for shipments bound for the United States.

25.   Early on Thursday, another DEA agent said Caribbean officials were helping traffickers use their islands to ship drugs to American and European markets.

26.   Gov. Pedro Rossello and other top officials have already demanded that the Navy stop using the island for live bombing.

27.   Jamaica, scheduled for elections in the coming year, also faces instability as politically motivated violence rises and drug traffickers use the island to transship cocaine.

28.   Legal experts say that under international maritime law, uninhabited small islands cannot be used as starting points for declaring the exclusive economic zone.

29.   Russia retains rights to use the island, under the terms of an interntional agreement.

30.   Russia retains rights to use the island, under the terms of an international agreement.