HAITI BOOMS AS CONDUIT TO U.S. FOR ILLICIT DRUGS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Sensing a singular opportunity in a country
weakened by a paralyzed government and an inexperienced police force,
Colombian and Dominican drug traffickers have made Haiti the fastest-growing
transit point for cocaine on its way to the United States, American and
Haitian law enforcement officials say.

Barry McCaffrey, the retired general who is President Clinton's drug policy
director, visited in early October and described the situation as "clearly
an emergency," warning that Haiti had become the "principal focus" of groups
trafficking drugs in the Caribbean.

In an interview, Pierre Denize, chief of the Haitian National Police,
offered an almost identical assessment.

"The intensity of the problem is new, and the capacity of law enforcement,
at least in the Republic of Haiti, is very limited," he said. "We have
limited resources, limited training, limited intelligence and investigative
capacity, and a very, very limited capacity to control a coast that,
geographically, is just across the street from Colombia."

American officials estimate that 15 percent of all the cocaine consumed in
the United States now passes through Haiti, about four tons a month. By
their calculation, that figure has doubled in little more than a year and
is, they say, in large part a result of their increased success in blocking
smuggling routes farther east in the Caribbean, in Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands.

All along Haiti's southern coast, indications of landings by fast boats from
Colombia have increased, as have reports of air drops in coastal waters.

Seizures at the airport in Port-au-Prince are up, especially on flights from
places near Colombia, such as Panama and the Netherlands Antilles. U.S.
Customs officials have noted a corresponding increase in drugs found aboard
Haitian freighters docking in Miami.

Another sign of the surge in drug trafficking is that the Drug Enforcement
Administration and other U.S. agencies are beefing up their presence in
Haiti and trying to forge closer ties with Haitian agencies that are weak
and inefficient. From just one agent here a year ago, the DEA contingent is
to grow to seven.

In an interview in Port-au-Prince, Robert Manuel, Haiti's secretary of state
for public security, acknowledged that his country is the "point of least
resistance" in the region and thus an attractive target to the cocaine
cartels.

After the landing of 20,000 American troops here four years ago, the Haitian
armed forces, which included a police force headed by an officer later
indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges, were abolished.

The new police force includes a small coast guard, but that force has one
base and fewer than 10 vessels. Most of those are fast boats confiscated
from Colombian traffickers and only about half of them are working at any
given time.

Haiti is also the poorest country in the hemisphere, and that appeals
greatly to traffickers.

"This is a cheaper place" for cartels to operate than Mexico or the
Dominican Republic, an American official in Haiti said, with a huge pool of
hungry people desperate for any kind of work. "Laborers earn 15 cents an
hour, so getting people to risk their lives is less difficult" and the
bribes that have to be paid are smaller, the official said.

But Haiti's traditional vulnerability has been amplified by a political
squabble between two factions of the Lavalas movement, which has been in
power since U.S. troops deposed a military

dictatorship four years ago.

The political crisis, which has lasted 16 months, has left the country
without a functioning government.

"They are always searching for the fissures, and they found one in Haiti,"
McCaffrey said of the drug cartels.

In public remarks, several members of the Haitian Congress have asserted
that much of the drug trade here is controlled by former military and police
officers who changed loyalties and are now associates of former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

U.S. officials say they are investigating the matter but emphasize, as one
put it, that there is as yet "no evidence that could lead to a prosecution."

Checked-by: Don Beck