U.S. COURT CONVICTS FUGITIVE HAITIAN OF DRUG SMUGGLING

MIAMI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A top police official and reputed death squad
leader under Haiti's former military regime was convicted in absentia by a
federal court on Friday of cocaine smuggling and money laundering.

Joseph Michel Francois is a fugitive from justice, having fought off U.S.
attempts to extradite him from Honduras, where he settled after the toppling
of the Haitian regime in 1994.

He was one of nine people convicted in the case in the U.S. District Court,
three others of whom are also fugitives.

A U.S. immigration officer who allowed traffickers to pass through secure
areas of Miami airport was one of those convicted. He is in custody.

U.S. drug fighters accused Francois of using his position as Port-au-
Prince's police chief to set up an apparatus that flooded the United States
with more than 33 tons of Colombian cocaine between 1987 and 1994, using
Haiti as a transit point.

According to the indictment, he had a private landing strip built and put
cronies in charge of the airport and seaports in return for millions of
dollars in payoffs from Colombian cartels.

He was arrested by Honduran police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
agents in March 1997 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, but has successfully
thwarted attempts to extradite him.

U.S. Attorney Tom Scott said in a statement on Friday that Francois, 41, had
been convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine from Colombia and Curacao in
the Netherlands Antilles.

The five men convicted and in custody included Fernando Burgos-Martinez, 57,
the Colombian cartel's liaison with corrupt Haitian officials, Marc Valme,
44, a Haitian military official who worked with the traffickers at
Port-au-Prince airport, and Joel Audain, 39, a U.S. Immigration and
Naturalisation officer at Miami airport.

One defendant, Fritz Lafontante, 44, fled during the trial.

They face a maximum of life imprisonment with a minimum of 10 years in jail,
and a fine of $4 million. Judge Federico Moreno set sentencing for Feb. 12.

Francois is believed to have been the mastermind behind the 1991 military
coup that toppled Haiti's elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. During
his tenure as police chief he ran a security apparatus that viciously
repressed any opposition.

He fled to the Dominican Republic in 1994 after U.S. troops invaded the
country to restore Aristide to power. He left for Honduras in 1996 after
Dominican authorities arrested him on charges of plotting to overthrow the
Haitian government again.

He has proclaimed his innocence over drug smuggling in news conferences in
Honduras.

U.S. officials have recently expressed concern that Haiti has again become a
major transit point for illegal narcotics bound for the United States.

Checked-by: Don Beck