WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury in San Diego has indicted two Pakistani men and a naturalized U.S. citizen on charges that they tried to trade thousands of pounds of drugs for anti-aircraft missiles they intended to sell to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday.

The men, Syed Mustajab Shah and Muhammed Abid Afridi, both of Pakistan, and Ilyas Ali of Minneapolis, tried to exchange a half-ton of heroin and 5 tons of hashish with undercover FBI agents in a series of meetings at a Hong Kong hotel and in San Diego, where at least one of the men lived briefly.

The men were arrested Sept. 20 in Hong Kong and are fighting extradition to the United States. They have been charged here with three counts of conspiring to import and distribute drugs, and providing material support to a foreign terrorist group, according to the indictment unsealed yesterday.

They face life sentences if convicted.

In a similar but unrelated case, three men linked to a Colombian paramilitary group were arrested Tuesday in Costa Rica on charges of trying to trade drugs to undercover agents for $25 million in weapons. A fourth man believed to be connected to the plan was arrested in Houston.

"The war on terrorism has been joined with the war on illegal drug use," Ashcroft said. "Today, because U.S. law enforcement officers have put their lives and their personal safety on the line, narco-terrorists from South America to Southeast Asia are less able to threaten American lives and American security."

In the San Diego case, the three men met with what they thought were arms dealers and drug buyers in April in that southern California city, then several times more in a hotel in Hong Kong in September.

The men believed the "dealers" - undercover FBI agents - would supply four Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and cash for their haul of drugs, the indictment said.

They told the agents they intended to sell the weapons to the Taliban, which Justice officials said they believed was a name interchangeable with al-Qaida. The Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan last fall at the start of the U.S.-led war on terrorism there.

The men never stood to actually get any weapons, Justice officials said.

American-made shoulder-fired Stinger missiles can take down airplanes and are small enough to fit into suitcases.

In the Houston case, Uwe Jensen, 66, and Carlos Ali Romero Varela, 43, both of Houston, and Cesar Lopez and a man identified only as "Commandant Emilio," both of Columbia, came to the FBI's and Drug Enforcement Administration's attention more than a year ago.

Officials said the men, alleged associates of the group United Self Defense Forces of Columbia, were looking to trade cocaine and cash for weapons, including 9,000 AK-47s and other assault rifles, grenade launchers and nearly 300,000 grenades, 300 pistols, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and about 53 million rounds of ammunition.

The Colombian police estimate that the organization was responsible for 804 assassinations, 203 kidnappings and 75 massacres that killed 507 victims during the first 10 months of 2000, Ashcroft said.

Undercover agents from the FBI and DEA met with one or more of the four men in London, the Virgin Islands and Panama City, officials said.

In the Virgin Islands, officials said, agents met with several of the men at an undercover warehouse so they could inspect some of the weaponry involved in the negotiations.

Agents also showed them a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the Russian and Eastern European-made weapons they had to offer. One of the men, seemingly impressed, then allegedly passed the software package around to other potential customers in Columbia.

Ashcroft praised the agents involved for what he called their "very dangerous work" because they wore wires and miniaturized video cameras to the meetings that could have given them away as undercover officers.

Romero Varela, Lopez and Commandant Emilio were arrested after they traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica, for what they thought was a meeting to finalize the transfer of weapons.

Jensen, who was arrested in Houston, appeared in court Tuesday and was ordered held until at least tomorrow.

The United States has extradition treaties with Hong Kong and Costa Rica, and Justice officials said they expect all the suspects will be returned shortly to face prosecution here.