Pubdate: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 Source: Washington Post Page: A22 Author: Serge F. Kovaleski, Washington Post Foreign Service Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ CARTELS 'BUYING' HAITI Corruption Is Widespread; Drug-Related Corruption Epidemic PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Last March, authorities arrested a Colombian man as he arrived at the international airport here lugging several suitcases stuffed with 1,650 pounds of cocaine destined for the United States. Two weeks later, under mysterious circumstances, the suspect was allowed to leave Haiti unpunished, according to Haitian and U.S. law enforcement sources. In the words of one U.S. investigator, "No one knows what . . . happened to him or the drugs." Around the same time, a Haitian driving a Mercedes-Benz through Port-au-Prince was pulled over in a routine traffic stop by police, who discovered 22 pounds of cocaine stashed in the trunk of the car. But a senior government official soon ordered the release of the driver and his car, law enforcement sources said. Then in November, police seized a large cocaine shipment from a truck apparently en route to the neighboring Dominican Republic that they had detained at a roadblock in the southern port town of Miragoane. Within hours, a group of the officers was back at the station dividing a large chunk of the find among themselves. This time, though, part of the haul was recovered by anti-drug police, who also arrested seven officers, as well as a justice of the peace and a court clerk for allegedly falsifying the initial report on the quantity confiscated. When the Clinton administration spearheaded an international mission in 1994 to reinstate democratic rule in Haiti, rebuilding the country's crooked and dysfunctional law enforcement institutions was to be a cornerstone of the effort. The military government at the time had for years forged strong, lucrative ties with South American drug traffickers, giving several notorious drug lords carte blanche to live and conduct business here. U.S. officials hoped to move the traffickers out. Today, however, a growing epidemic of drug-related corruption is poisoning that U.S.-backed endeavor and allowing Colombia's powerful cocaine and heroin cartels to utilize this impoverished Caribbean island more than ever as a major transit point to the United States. Now that the U.N. peacekeeping mission here has ended, authorities fear the situation may get worse. A senior U.S. official said this month that it is now estimated that 7 percent of the cocaine that reaches the United States passes through Haiti. In recent months, nearly three dozen officials -- police officers, a prosecutor, two judges, mayors, council members -- have been arrested on drug charges that include complicity in drug trafficking and dealing. The crackdown has been part of an attempt by President Rene Preval to counter what many observers consider the most serious threat to this nation's fragile democracy. "Nowhere does a narco-dollar go further today than in Haiti," said another U.S. investigator, referring to the ease with which cartels can smuggle and harbor drugs here. "As a transshipment venue and a 'stash house' for traffickers, Haiti is bigger than ever, it has never been worse, in large part thanks to narco-corruption." "The situation is quite simple here. People, including some police, are so desperate for food and other things that dealing drugs or working for drug traffickers would not be a second thought for many Haitians. Look what happened in Flamand," said Port-au-Prince street vendor Michelle Beaux, 28, referring to an incident last November when people in a southern fishing village attacked smugglers transferring drugs from a vessel and split up more than 1.5 tons of cocaine to sell. "It is very easy to take advantage of poor people, and the drug traffickers know it. It is also very sad what they are doing," Beaux said. "We all look to God to help us, but that is different than the fast money the drug traffickers offer people," said Rafael Charles, 29, as he sat in his wheelchair on a Port-au-Prince street begging for money. "A lot of Haitians, including politicians, have sold their souls for that money. And nobody seems to be watching. Many of us have no choice. We have to eat, and we want nice things." The porous border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic enables Haitian smugglers -- sometimes police officers -- to deliver narcotics freely from the largely unprotected shores of their country to their Dominican counterparts. They, in turn, move the contraband into the United States by boat or plane, mostly through the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, about 80 miles away. A portion of Haiti's drug shipments is smuggled directly from the island to eastern U.S. cities, such as Miami and New York, on large container ships or individual "mules" flying on commercial airplanes. Law enforcement officials noted, however, that Haiti for the most part has become a feeder for Dominican traffickers, who not only work as transporters for the Colombians, but have extensive sales networks in profitable U.S. markets like New York City. "Haiti's long history of economic and political instability, along with rampant official corruption, have increased the inherent attractiveness of the country as a crossroads of the drug trade," James S. Milford, retired acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said in testimony last year at a House subcommittee hearing on drug trafficking in the Caribbean. "There is such a society of desperation and poverty that it is easy [for drug traffickers] to get protection from the community," said Sandro Calvani, the representative in the Caribbean for the U. N. Drug Control Program. Said one Haitian law enforcement official: "Basically, the drug cartels are buying this country from the bottom up and from the top down. They are corrupting everyone from poor townspeople to police officers and judges with cash, and sometimes product, to make sure they consolidate their positions on the island." Investigators said that up to a dozen suspected Colombian traffickers are living in Haiti, trying to co-opt more public officials here while managing the movement of vast amounts of cocaine and heroin. Observers noted, however, that one break with the past has been the creation of the Hatian National Police department's Office of the Inspector General, which has gone after corrupt officers on the force. All told, more than 200 officers have been fired for reasons ranging from alleged drug trafficking and dealing to excessive force. At least 60 are in prison awaiting trial, and Preval is considering appointing a special prosecutor to handle the increasing number of cases. The inexperienced and low-paid Haitian National Police, a force of 5,300 officers that is largely U.S. trained, has proven to be brazenly susceptible to corruption. In November, for example, three officers were arrested on charges of working for a suspected drug dealer to torture and kill her enemies. Judges are generally paid even less than police officers, who earn about $80 a month. Late last year, Preval was forced to intervene in two corruption cases, ordering the arrest of one judge because he inexplicably released a reputed Dominican drug trafficker and relieving another judge who was accused of taking bribes in several drug-related cases, according to government officials. There have been no successful prosecutions of drug cases in Haiti in at least the last two years. In a recent interview, police chief Pierre Denize acknowledged that corruption is a major problem. "A corrupt system is very much alive," Denize said. "We have ports that are really open ports. There is nonexistent and ridiculously weak security. Sure, they [traffickers] love Haiti, understandably so. Basically it comes down to the point of least resistance. This is the regional point of least resistance." © Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company