MALPASSE, Haiti - Three beefy men wearing wraparound sunglasses and gold chains leaned against their SUV at this remote border crossing with the Dominican Republic. As one of them muttered into a walkie-talkie, four Haitian policemen pulled up looking like they meant business. The SUV's back hatch was opened. The cops eyeballed its load of opaque plastic-wrapped bundles. One officer picked up a package the size of a bread loaf, appraising its weight with his forearm. Then the police and the bejeweled trio knocked fists in solidarity, traded vehicles and drove off toward the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. And thus ended the drug bust that wasn't. [continues 745 words]
Drug-Running Has Soared in the Country, Made Vulnerable by Poverty, Isolation and Police Corruption. MALPASSE, HAITI -- Three beefy men wearing wraparound sunglasses and gold chains leaned against their SUV at this remote border crossing with the Dominican Republic. As one of them muttered into a walkie-talkie, four Haitian policemen pulled up looking like they meant business. The SUV's back hatch was opened. The cops eyeballed its load of opaque-plastic-wrapped bundles. One officer picked up a package the size of a bread loaf, appraising its weight with his forearm. [continues 1473 words]
Haiti -- The United States on Wednesday defended its anti-drug efforts in Haiti, two days after the nation's president accused America and other major drug-consuming countries of failing to adequately fight the narcotics trade. In a strongly worded speech to Parliament on Monday, President Rene Preval called drug trafficking the main cause of instability in his impoverished nation and said failed efforts by the United States and other countries to stop the trade had made Haiti a victim. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Shaila B. Manyam said Wednesday that the United States has undertaken measures to defend Haiti against drug trafficking, including strengthening its weak justice system and training its coast guard. [continues 183 words]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- At least three candidates in Haiti's elections scheduled for Jan. 8 have links to a cocaine-trafficking industry that wants to ensure the next government is weak and corruptible, a half-dozen Haitian and U.S. officials say. Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates -- Guy Philippe and Dany Toussaint -- have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials. A Senate candidate who is a nephew of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has close links to a gang that controls drug smuggling in the port of Gonaives, according to the Haitian and U.S. officials. [continues 463 words]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - At least three candidates in Haiti's upcoming elections have links to a cocaine-trafficking industry that wants to ensure the next government is weak and corruptible, a half-dozen Haitian and U.S. officials say. Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates -- Guy Philippe and Dany Toussaint -- have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials. And a Senate candidate who's a nephew of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has close links to a gang that controls drug smuggling in the port of Gonaives, according to the Haitian and U.S. officials. [continues 447 words]
Some Candidates For President Of Haiti Have Ties To Drug Traffickers, According To Haitian And U.S. Officials PORT-AU-PRINCE - At least three candidates in Haiti's upcoming elections have links to a cocaine-trafficking industry that wants to ensure the next government is weak and corruptible, a half-dozen Haitian and U.S. officials say. Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates -- Guy Philippe and Dany Toussaint -- have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials. [continues 911 words]
MIAMI - A top Haitian police official in the government of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is facing trial on charges that he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to help Colombian drug lords move huge loads of cocaine through the impoverished Caribbean country. Jury selection is scheduled to begin later this week in the case against Evintz Brillant, the only one of four former senior Haitian police officials who has not pleaded guilty in the investigation of drug trafficking inside the Aristide government. [continues 527 words]
MIAMI - One of Haiti's former antidrug chiefs was indicted Friday on a drug conspiracy charge as other former police and traffickers cooperating with U.S. investigators explained how Haitian officials allegedly took payoffs to protect Colombian cocaine heading to Miami. Evintz Brillant was added to an indictment that named former Haitian national police Cmdr. Rudy Therassan on a conspiracy charge carrying a possible life sentence. Arraignment is set for Monday. Therassan's attorney has identified Oriel Jean, ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's jailed chief of presidential palace security, as an informant in the wide-ranging investigation. Imprisoned Haitian drug kingpin Beaudoin ``Jacques'' Ketant, who has denounced Aristide as a drug lord, also is helping U.S. investigators. Therassan has admitted killing Ketant's drug-trafficking brother but says it was in self-defense. [end]
Days before President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of Haiti, a notorious cocaine trafficker stood before a federal judge in Miami and said Aristide, once his friend, had turned Haiti into "a narco- country." "The man is a drug lord," Beaudouin "Jacques" Ketant told U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno on Feb. 25. "He controlled the drug trade in Haiti." His country in rebellion, Aristide left four days later aboard a plane provided by the U.S. government. In recent weeks, it has become clear that federal law enforcement officials in South Florida are putting a lot of stock in what Ketant has to say. The high-living cocaine trafficker has emerged as a central figure in an investigation that has snagged five former Haitian officials and appears to have Aristide in its sights. [continues 1109 words]
CHEVALIER, Haiti - The riches that arrived in this tiny village came from the sea - not in fisherman's nets but in an abandoned speedboat that washed up last year stocked with dozens of cellophane-wrapped bricks of Colombian cocaine. "Everyone else was grabbing it, so I took some," said Vital, a young fisherman. I gave it to my father, and the men came from Port-au-Prince to buy it for a lot of money." The cargo taught this southern coastal village what Haitian police and government officials have known for years: The drug trade is one of the few ways in Haiti to amass a fortune. [continues 277 words]
A former commander of the Haitian National Police Brigade was arrested in Miami and accused of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States, the latest ex-official caught in a U.S. investigation of drug trafficking under ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Rudy Therassan was arrested Friday after being pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol, said Carlos Castillo, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami. Therassan headed the Haitian national police from 2001 until last August, according to a criminal complaint. [continues 203 words]
The one-time commander of the Haitian National Police Brigade was arrested Friday in Miami on a drug charge, the latest government official caught in a federal investigation of cocaine and corruption under former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Papers filed in federal court in Miami identified the official as Rudy Therassan, who headed the Haitian national police from 2001 until last August. The U.S. Attorney's Office confirmed the arrest, saying Therassan was taken into custody on a warrant after the Florida Highway Patrol pulled him over on the Palmetto Expressway. [continues 535 words]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, July 20 - Intoxicated by the promise of easy money, thousands of Haitians here and abroad sold their cars, mortgaged their homes and emptied their savings accounts in recent months to invest in cooperatives that promised astonishing monthly returns of 10 percent. Economists and bankers long warned government officials and the public that the unregulated cooperatives were little more than a pyramid scheme and possible money-laundering operation. But when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide hailed cooperatives as "the people's capitalism" that would drive economic development, many investors said their skepticism vanished. [continues 1035 words]
Grand-Goave, Haiti - It was just over a year ago that a peasant mob in this poor coastal town ripped off a four-ton shipment of Colombian cocaine, a haul worth $20 million even at local prices. Fishermen became instant millionaires. Farmers frequented nightclubs. And the sudden largess spawned a host of new social ills. But the populist drug seizure here in a nation that had become a major trans-shipment hub for Colombian cocaine headed to the United States also pointed to the latest, and perhaps strangest, trend in Caribbean drug smuggling. [continues 726 words]
Crime: Crumbling Roads And Populist Cocaine Grabs Erode The Nation's Role As A Transport Hub. GRAND-GOAVE, Haiti--It was just over a year ago that a peasant mob in this poor coastal town ripped off a 4-ton shipment of Colombian cocaine--a haul worth $20 million even at local prices. Fishermen became instant millionaires. Farmers showered in celebratory beers at local nightclubs. And the sudden largess spawned a host of new social ills. But the populist drug seizure here in a nation that had become a major transshipment hub for Colombian cocaine headed to the U.S. also pointed to the latest--and perhaps strangest--trend in Caribbean drug smuggling. [continues 929 words]
The international community froze all loans to Haiti in 1997 because of the countrys political turmoil. This May President Mejia of the neighbouring Dominican Republic appealed for aid to be resumed since its discontinuation is affecting not only Haiti but the whole region. As the political vacuum grows, the mafia is expanding to fill it: the traffic in drugs has increased more than threefold in the space of four years, adding to Haitis already disastrous image. Gallimards new, lavishly illustrated guide to Haiti (1) paints an enticing picture of the pearl of the Caribbean, as it was called in the 17th century. But when you arrive theres not a tourist to be seen: just a few transient expats. The island has never been in such bad shape socially and economically, never had a worse political image in the outside world: widespread poverty, neglect, desertion, dilapidation, shipwreck, collapse, calvary, chaos, apocalypse. The press runs the gamut of metaphors, biblical and non-biblical. After 15 years of transition to democracy and international dithering, some people are even beginning to look back with nostalgia to the good old days of Jean- Claude Duvalier and his puppet government. [continues 1937 words]
Ships, Planes To Go Along Coast, In Air In a decision quickly welcomed by U.S. officials, Haiti has agreed to allow U.S. ships and planes to enter its unguarded coastline and airspace to intercept Colombian vessels preparing to unload cocaine destined for South Florida. The move is supported by president-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who pledged to put into effect an agreement that was signed by the United States and Haiti three years ago but not ratified by Haiti's parliament until last month. [continues 699 words]
In a decision quickly welcomed by U.S. officials, Haiti has agreed to allow U.S. ships and planes to enter its unguarded coastline and airspace to intercept Colombian vessels preparing to unload cocaine destined for South Florida. The move is supported by president-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who pledged to put into effect an agreement that was signed by the United States and Haiti three years ago but not ratified by Haiti's parliament until last month. [continues 695 words]
Society Blames Cocaine Trade For Its Downfall PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Bernard Louisdhon sits on a dirty mattress that takes up half the airless room. He rubs his eyes and looks at the light that filters through the open door. Louisdhon is waking up from the morning's crack binge. He's a thief who feeds a growing appetite for the drug with stolen goods. Recently, he fell from a third-story balcony with a stolen laptop in his hands, and casually shows the bruises on his side. For the theft, he spent a month locked up. [continues 1073 words]
Influx Brings Cash, Crime, Corruption LEOGANE, Haiti -- For Del Lydes, the drug planes that circle over the cornfields have become as common as the flies that buzz around his cows. They swoop down past the trees and roll to a stop along the two-lane road that slices through the fields. Then men with machine guns stash their cargo -- cocaine -- into cars. "Around here it is a cocaine area," Lydes said. "A lot of people have moved. But others come at night to wait for the planes." [continues 1344 words]
Inside Haiti
