HAITI TAKING ON A BURGEONING ROLE IN COCAINE TRADE

Troubled Island Used As Transit Site For South American Drugs

The cries of concern are becoming louder and more frequent over Haiti's
growing role as a transshipment point for Colombian cocaine entering the
United States, but U.S. officials acknowledge the solution is as elusive as
ever.

The increased focus on Haiti as a drug transit outpost comes at a time of
increasing political turmoil and economic despair as the Caribbean country
heads toward long-awaited parliamentary and presidential elections.

The U.S. government estimates 67 tons, or 14 percent, of all cocaine
destined for the United States from South America came through Haiti in
1999, up from 54 tons, or 10 percent, in 1998.

SEIZURES DOWN

At the same time, a U.S. government report notes, Haitian police seized only
430 kilograms of cocaine in 1999, less than a third of the amount seized the
year before. ``This decline in seizures may be due in part to a shift by
Colombian traffickers from maritime drug shipments to airdrops,'' adds the
report. ``The latter are effectively beyond the reach of Haitian law
enforcement units.''

The apparent surge also came as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has
beefed up its presence in Haiti, from only temporary personnel to eight
permanent people in 1999.

The problem was dramatized in early February when U.S. Customs seized more
than 3,400 pounds of cocaine from five vessels arriving in Miami from Haiti.

Haiti ``is descending into frightening depths of drug corruption and
violence,'' Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House
International Relations Committee, told a congressional hearing last week.

``In fact,'' added Gilman, ``Haiti is becoming a narco-state.''

While not necessarily agreeing with Gilman's characterization, U.S. drug
czar Barry McCaffrey, in a meeting this week with The Herald's editorial
board, called the situation in Haiti `` awful . . . I don't know what to do
about it.''

LOW RESISTANCE

``It's bad now and getting worse,'' Rep. Porter Goss, a Florida Republican
and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a telephone
interview. The drug trade, Goss said, is ``destabilizing . . . in terms of
any hope for democratic processes in Haiti.''

For the second straight year, Haiti received a ``conditional'' certification
- -- essentially a waiver -- in the State Department's annual International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report assessing the cooperation of 28 major
drug-producing and drug-transitting countries.

``Haiti's weak democratic institutions, fledgling police force and eroding
infrastructure provide South American-based narcotics traffickers with a
path of very little resistance,'' the report said.

Sources in Haiti familiar with the drug trade there question whether the
transit problem is getting worse or it is ``just now getting light shone on
it'' as a result of the February seizures in Miami that ``really perked
people up.''

They also note that the nature of the transit problem in Haiti is changing
from so-called go-fast boats from Colombia bringing cocaine to the country's
southern peninsula to single-engine planes ferrying it to the north of
Haiti. From there it is shipped by freighter to the United States, with
Cap-Haitien and Fort-Liberte the north coast departure ports of choice.

Even the nature of the air transport has changed, the sources say, from
airdrops in the water to nighttime landings at remote Haitian airstrips. In
December, three small planes believed to be carrying drugs crashed in the
country; a fourth was seized in January.

Cocaine planes taking off from Colombia en route to Haiti are benefiting
from Venezuela's refusal to allow U.S. drug surveillance planes to use its
airspace, U.S. officials say.

``As a result, we believe that drug smugglers are now using Venezuelan
airspace to thwart law enforcement . . . , '' John Varone, a high-ranking
Customs official, told a House subcommittee hearing last week.

`WITH IMPUNITY'

Varone noted that ``many factors have converged in recent years to make
Haiti `the path of least resistance' in the Caribbean for drug smugglers.
Record quantities of cocaine are being smuggled there.''

Varone cited, among other things, Haiti's location, its ``tenuous political
situation . . . lack of law enforcement infrastructure and/or marine
enforcement capabilities and the corrupting influence of drug trafficking,''
which has allowed drug smugglers to ``operate there with impunity.''

Pierre Denize, chief of Haiti's fledgling police force, acknowledged in a
recent interview that the drug problem in Haiti ``is very serious in terms
of volume and also in terms of impact. It carries its own brand of violence
and brings with it arms trafficking and in general organized crime sectors
that benefit from it.''