HAITI 'WEAK LINK' IN DRUG CHAIN

Tonnes Of Cocaine Pass Through Haiti's Ports

Authorities in the United States say Colombian drug lords have taken
advantage of political instability and poverty in Haiti, to turn it
into the most important transit point for cocaine in the Caribbean.

According to a recent State Department report, traffickers last year
directed 15% of the cocaine consumed in the US through Haiti - a total
of 75 tonnes. That figure is up 24% on the previous year.

The Haitian authorities managed to intercept 375kg - less than half of
1% of the total.

Most of the cocaine enters in and around Miami.

"I think the instability right now in that country is lending itself
as an area of vulnerability," said the Miami Customs Service chief
Frank Figueroa.

"The Colombian cartels have realised that, and traffickers are always
looking for that weak link in the chain. It just so happens that Haiti
is that weak link."

Analysts say there are three reasons for Haiti's role in the drugs
chain.

First, the Caribbean country is geographically close to Colombia which
supplies the vast bulk of cocaine. It takes a fast smuggler's boat a
little over an hour to cover the stretch of water between the two countries.

Secondly, a political crisis has left Haiti without any effective
government for almost three years. The dispute between the opposition
and President Rene Preval has all but destroyed the country's
infrastructure and its institutions, making it easy for traffickers to
evade the badly weakened authorities.

And thirdly, as the poorest country in the western hemisphere with 80%
of the population living in poverty, the country has a ready supply of
people willing to help the traffickers in return for a worthwhile income.

It also makes it easy to bribe police and judges who typically earn
less than $300 a month.

"How can we possibly make an impact on the drugs passing through
here?" asked the head of the Haitian Drug Squad, Mario Andresol.

"I have just 26 officers to cover the whole country, and although we
do our best to make sure they aren't corrupt, it's impossible to
monitor them all the time with the resources we have."

But he added that there was no way he could do his job effectively
without the support of lawmakers.

"Our laws are weak, our judicial system doesn't work, and we have no
way of fixing things with the government in its current state," he
said.

Bribery And Corruption

An internal police report admitted that not one person arrested on
drugs charges in the past five years has ever gone to trial.

The counter-narcotics squad insists that isn't because it's not doing
its job. The squad arrested 94 people last year alone. Mr Andresol
blamed a corrupt judiciary.

"All I can guess is that they bought their way out. It's not hard to
do with wages as they are, compared to the money they can offer," he
said.

In a rare success in an otherwise dismal record, the squad did manage
to run a sting operation against alleged trafficker Emanuel Thibauld
last year.

But they couldn't have done it without the support of the US
authorities.

The Haitians seized almost 100kgs of cocaine, five luxury cars,
$400,000 in cash and Thibauld's $2m home.

But it was the US police who arrested Thibauld himself.

The Haitian police are working closely with their American
counterparts in a bid to close some of the gaps, but it's a huge job.

Help From America

Another branch of the police actively involved in counter-narcotics
operations is the Haitian Coast Guard. But their story is also
painfully familiar.

The entire unit has just nine relatively flimsy craft to patrol a
coast 1,500km long. And none of their boats are capable of cruising in
the rough southern seas that separate Colombia and Haiti.

The US Coast Guard provides all the equipment, uniforms and training
for the Haitians, covering almost 70% of their running costs.

But short of monitoring the shipping in the calmer waters of the
established harbours, there's little they can do on their own,
according to Coast Guard commander Leon Charles.

"We've managed to make life difficult in some of the ports closer to
Colombia, like Gonaive," he said. "Before we started regular checks
there, most of the boats seized in Miami came from there, but now
they've had to move elsewhere."

But ultimately Haiti is open to the drug barons.

"I don't expect to see any improvement soon," said Frank Figueroa in
Miami. "It's going to be difficult [to stop the cocaine] as long as
the political situation remains the way it is."