DRUG TRAFFICKERS WREAK HAVOC IN HAITI

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.

"You can get as much drugs as you want here," Louisdhon said. ". . . The
police are dealing. Everybody is a dealer here."

While Colombian traffickers use Haiti as a trampoline to ship some of their
cocaine to American streets, they're wreaking havoc in Haiti, too.
Break-ins and armed robberies, rare a few years ago, are now common, and
Haitians believe that to be a product of the drug trade. More than 100
police officers suspected of working for drug dealers have been kicked off
the force, raising Haitians' mistrust of the young department.

Many Haitians say the cocaine trade has not only worsened the crime
problem, but has also contributed to the breakdown of Haitian society.

They point to mansions sprouting in the mountains above this city and gas
stations under construction as evidence of illicit gains or money laundering.

Many Users

Researchers found that users, many of them street children addicted to
glue, paint thinner or gasoline, are getting younger. Some graduate to
cocaine, financing their habit by washing cars or stealing. Older ones
become dealers.

"Haitian society is in complete denial," said Gaetane Auguste, executive
director of Haiti's only treatment center.

But Haitians should not expect any help from the United States, the
destination for most of the cocaine.

The General Accounting Office on Sept. 19 said $70 million to build a new
Haitian police force and $27 million to strengthen the legal system had
largely been wasted. The police were ineffective, corrupt and politicized,
the GAO said, and the legal system was hampered by corruption, government
control, a large case backlog, an outdated legal code, poor facilities and
by the fact that it conducted business in French, instead of Creole, the
country's majority language.

Coastline

The cocaine to make Louisdhon's crack enters Haiti through hundreds of
miles of unguarded coastline, mostly on the Caribbean Sea. The White House
Office on National Drug Control Policy estimates that more than 65 metric
tons of cocaine gets dropped here from go-fast boats or airplanes before it
is repackaged and shipped to the United States through couriers or on
freighters that dock on the Miami River.

"The fight against the criminal element in Haiti goes through the drug
trade," said Camille Leblanc, Haiti's minister of justice.

Drug Haven

For Louisdhon and his roommate, Richard Miguel, this city is a drug haven.

One of the most active drug bazaars is around the block from their
second-floor cinder-block room, only yards from the presidential palace and
the police department. All they need to satisfy their craving is a little
bit of money. A "rock" of crack that would sell for $10 in the United
States goes for $1 here.

"The guys downstairs is a dealer," said Louisdhon, eyes vacant, pointing
with his chin to a room below the steps. "That's why he keeps me here. He
makes money from us."

Justice Minister Leblanc advocates greater U.S. cooperation, saying that
Haiti cannot slow the flood of drugs with 25 agents. More often than they
would like to admit, they have come across officers such as Patrick
Dormevil, who tried to bribe an agent at the airport to let through 891
pounds of cocaine in March 1998. Hundreds of other officers have been
investigated, fired and imprisoned.

"We do our share, our part in trying to identify them, kick them off the
force and whenever possible arrest them," said Pierre Denize, Haiti's
police chief.

Denize said he plans to double to 50 the number of anti-drug agents.

Leblanc holds 50 Colombian traffickers in jail, some locked up for as long
as three years without a trial. For the first time, Haiti expelled a
low-level trafficker last month wanted by U.S. prosecutors. Leblanc said he
is setting up a special jury for drug cases, along with a translator from
the Colombian consulate.

"Haiti is ready to set up the mechanism to bring to trial all drug
traffickers," Leblanc said, "if the U.S. gives us help. Drug dealers used
to drop money to get cases ruled in their favor. They can't do that
anymore. I've exposed judges. We're too small to respond to this crisis on
our own."

High Quality

The cocaine that stays in Haiti, reputed to be of high quality, is only a
small part of the trade. Young Haitians who have lived overseas have only
recently begun to experiment with the drugs. Marijuana and cocaine were
rare in Haiti during the 30-year Duvalier family dictatorship, when the
state security apparatus eyed suspiciously any "rebel" trends.

During that time, major traffickers such as Colombian Carlos Lehder used
other available routes, primarily the Bahamas, as transshipment points. As
Haiti disbanded its army and the paramilitary Tonton Macoutes, traffickers
with mountains of cash found it easy to make new friends there.

Estimates from the Association Against Alcohol and other Chemical
Dependencies put the number of users at 5 percent of the eight million
Haitians.

Finding Help

Joannie is typical of those who find help there. She lived in New York City
for more than 25 years, where she tried marijuana once, and settled in
Haiti about a decade ago to be closer to her older parents. She tried crack
with a boyfriend, then was buying about $50 worth a day, she said. In six
months, she spent her savings of $30,000.

"I blew it, just blew it," said Joannie, who asked that her real name not
be used.

She hasn't touched the drug in years, she said, although it would be easy
to get it. There is a market in front of her home in the suburb of Petionville.

"There is a lot of use out there, a lot," she said, speaking of drug users.
"I see them."

Crack Pipe

Miguel might be the most carefree of them all. He shrugs off the stain from
having a picture of him smoking a crack pipe published on the Internet. He
works as a lookout for Louisdhon, spends time in jail, gets out and hustles
for money.

Getting the drug is the easy part.

"All I need to do is stand here and yell," said Miguel, whose mother lives
in Miami. "Someone will come up. Now you get people who find this white
powder that falls from the sky sometimes and they know that it can change
their lives. They kill for it."