DRUG TRAFFICKERS MAKING HAITI A KEY TRANSIT POINT

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 here, 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 airdrops in
coastal waters. Seizures at the airport here are up, especially on
flights from places near Colombia, like 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 American agencies are beefing up
their presence here 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, Robert Manuel, Haiti's secretary of state for public
security, acknowledged that his country was the "point of least
resistance" in the region, and thus an attractive target to the
cocaine cartels. That is an inevitable result, he said, of having to
organize from scratch a 6,000-member civilian police force, a process
he called "a nightmare."

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 one 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 here 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 American 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.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry