The FARC has well-documented ties to a range of drug trafficking activities including taxation, cultivation, and distribution. The group considers US persons to be legitimate military targets due to US support for the Colombian Government. FARC’s most widely known operation was its kidnapping of three US contractors—Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell; together with French politician Ingrid Betancourt—in February 2002. The four were freed by Colombian security forces in July 2008.