SMUGGLERS ADAPT, FIND WAYS TO MOVE DRUGS THROUGH HAITI TO THE U.S.

MIAMI (AP) - Colombian drug lords, who used "cocaine cowboys" in the
1980s to ferry their cargo aboard fast boats and low-flying planes,
are moving tons of illegal drugs and cash into the United States by
way of Haiti.

Records show the amount of cocaine seized en route to the United
States from Haiti in the past five months has more than doubled the
total amount that came between Oct. 1998 and Sept. 1999.

Smugglers are increasingly employing hiding places so ingenious that
federal agents have had to drill into the keels of freighters to find
the drugs.

This month alone, agents seized more than a ton of cocaine stashed
inside false compartments aboard several freighters from Haiti. They
found an additional 160 pounds of the drug hidden inside barrels of
butter aboard a commercial flight that arrived in Miami.

"This particular incident of uncovering cocaine in the keel will force
the organizations to come up with a new way to bring it in," said
Frank Figueroa, lead investigator at the Customs Service office in
Miami.

The two main routes for the shipment of cocaine are either directly
from Colombia to Haiti or via Panama. Large shipments are delivered
mainly to Haiti's southern coast by fast boats, cargo freighters or
air drops.

"The success that we've had in Mexico has ballooned somewhat the
impact on of what has come through the Caribbean," said Bob Weiner, a
spokesman for White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey. "It's still a
very serious situation."

Ten to 15 years ago, marijuana and illegal immigrants were the main
illicit cargo from Haiti, an island nation 600 miles southeast of Miami.

Figueroa said agents noticed an increase in cocaine shipments from
Haiti in the past four to five years. The Office of National Drug
Control Policy estimates 12 percent of the illegal drugs smuggled into
the United States now comes through Haiti.

But that figure may be on the rise.

Between October 1997 and September 1998, U.S. investigators seized
7,005 pounds of cocaine aboard Haitian vessels. The amount dropped to
2,063 pounds the next year, but in the past five months, Customs has
already seized 4,983 pounds of cocaine.

More than 3,000 pounds of that total - with a street value of about
$25 million - was found this month, hidden in the keels of five
vessels docked along the Miami River.

The drugs were hidden in tiny false compartments, below floor panels,
inside tanks filled with water or fuel, and within the bilge areas,
the sections between the hull and the floor where waste
accumulates.

Such compartments are often impossible to get at from the inner deck.
Officials searching for contraband are faced with cutting through
several inches of flooring, or the costly option of putting the
vessels in dry dock and drilling holes in the keel.

Customs agents employed that tactic this month. After they began
pulling out drill bits sprinkled with cocaine, investigators cut
through the thick metal section of the ships and found more than a ton
of cocaine.

Officials are also finding more drug proceeds being smuggled out of
the United States en route to the drug kingpins. Customs agents
recently found a little over $1 million aboard a freighter carrying
junk. The cash was inside brand-new toolboxes on the deck in plain
view.

According to a State Department report last year: "Efforts by the
government of Haiti to investigate, arrest, prosecute or convict
members of international drug trafficking organizations were lacking."

Justice Department officials blame several factors: a political
impasse between Haiti's branches of government, widespread corruption,
a dysfunctional judicial system, pervasive poverty and inexperienced
forces to pursue drug smugglers.

"It takes them up to seven hours to respond to threats," said Drug
Enforcement Administration spokesman Brent Eaton. "So they need a lot
of help."