CARTELS 'BUYING' HAITI

Corruption Is Widespread; Drug-Related Corruption Epidemic

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Last March, authorities arrested a Colombian man as
he arrived at the international airport here lugging several suitcases
stuffed with 1,650 pounds of cocaine destined for the United States. Two
weeks later, under mysterious circumstances, the suspect was allowed to
leave Haiti unpunished, according to Haitian and U.S. law enforcement
sources. In the words of one U.S. investigator, "No one knows what . . .
happened to him or the drugs."

Around the same time, a Haitian driving a Mercedes-Benz through
Port-au-Prince was pulled over in a routine traffic stop by police, who
discovered 22 pounds of cocaine stashed in the trunk of the car. But a
senior government official soon ordered the release of the driver and his
car, law enforcement sources said.

Then in November, police seized a large cocaine shipment from a truck
apparently en route to the neighboring Dominican Republic that they had
detained at a roadblock in the southern port town of Miragoane. Within
hours, a group of the officers was back at the station dividing a large
chunk of the find among themselves. This time, though, part of the haul was
recovered by anti-drug police, who also arrested seven officers, as well as
a justice of the peace and a court clerk for allegedly falsifying the
initial report on the quantity confiscated.

When the Clinton administration spearheaded an international mission in
1994 to reinstate democratic rule in Haiti, rebuilding the country's
crooked and dysfunctional law enforcement institutions was to be a
cornerstone of the effort. The military government at the time had for
years forged strong, lucrative ties with South American drug traffickers,
giving several notorious drug lords carte blanche to live and conduct
business here. U.S. officials hoped to move the traffickers out.

Today, however, a growing epidemic of drug-related corruption is poisoning
that U.S.-backed endeavor and allowing Colombia's powerful cocaine and
heroin cartels to utilize this impoverished Caribbean island more than ever
as a major transit point to the United States.

Now that the U.N. peacekeeping mission here has ended, authorities fear the
situation may get worse. A senior U.S. official said this month that it is
now estimated that 7 percent of the cocaine that reaches the United States
passes through Haiti.

In recent months, nearly three dozen officials -- police officers, a
prosecutor, two judges, mayors, council members -- have been arrested on
drug charges that include complicity in drug trafficking and dealing. The
crackdown has been part of an attempt by President Rene Preval to counter
what many observers consider the most serious threat to this nation's
fragile democracy.

"Nowhere does a narco-dollar go further today than in Haiti," said another
U.S. investigator, referring to the ease with which cartels can smuggle and
harbor drugs here. "As a transshipment venue and a 'stash house' for
traffickers, Haiti is bigger than ever, it has never been worse, in large
part thanks to narco-corruption."

"The situation is quite simple here. People, including some police, are so
desperate for food and other things that dealing drugs or working for drug
traffickers would not be a second thought for many Haitians. Look what
happened in Flamand," said Port-au-Prince street vendor Michelle Beaux, 28,
referring to an incident last November when people in a southern fishing
village attacked smugglers transferring drugs from a vessel and split up
more than 1.5 tons of cocaine to sell.

"It is very easy to take advantage of poor people, and the drug traffickers
know it. It is also very sad what they are doing," Beaux said.

"We all look to God to help us, but that is different than the fast money
the drug traffickers offer people," said Rafael Charles, 29, as he sat in
his wheelchair on a Port-au-Prince street begging for money. "A lot of
Haitians, including politicians, have sold their souls for that money. And
nobody seems to be watching. Many of us have no choice. We have to eat, and
we want nice things."

The porous border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic enables Haitian
smugglers -- sometimes police officers -- to deliver narcotics freely from
the largely unprotected shores of their country to their Dominican
counterparts. They, in turn, move the contraband into the United States by
boat or plane, mostly through the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, about 80
miles away. A portion of Haiti's drug shipments is smuggled directly from
the island to eastern U.S. cities, such as Miami and New York, on large
container ships or individual "mules" flying on commercial airplanes.

Law enforcement officials noted, however, that Haiti for the most part has
become a feeder for Dominican traffickers, who not only work as
transporters for the Colombians, but have extensive sales networks in
profitable U.S. markets like New York City.

"Haiti's long history of economic and political instability, along with
rampant official corruption, have increased the inherent attractiveness of
the country as a crossroads of the drug trade," James S. Milford, retired
acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
said in testimony last year at a House subcommittee hearing on drug
trafficking in the Caribbean.

"There is such a society of desperation and poverty that it is easy [for
drug traffickers] to get protection from the community," said Sandro
Calvani, the representative in the Caribbean for the U. N. Drug Control
Program.

Said one Haitian law enforcement official: "Basically, the drug cartels are
buying this country from the bottom up and from the top down. They are
corrupting everyone from poor townspeople to police officers and judges
with cash, and sometimes product, to make sure they consolidate their
positions on the island." Investigators said that up to a dozen suspected
Colombian traffickers are living in Haiti, trying to co-opt more public
officials here while managing the movement of vast amounts of cocaine and
heroin.

Observers noted, however, that one break with the past has been the
creation of the Hatian National Police department's Office of the Inspector
General, which has gone after corrupt officers on the force. All told, more
than 200 officers have been fired for reasons ranging from alleged drug
trafficking and dealing to excessive force. At least 60 are in prison
awaiting trial, and Preval is considering appointing a special prosecutor
to handle the increasing number of cases.

The inexperienced and low-paid Haitian National Police, a force of 5,300
officers that is largely U.S. trained, has proven to be brazenly
susceptible to corruption. In November, for example, three officers were
arrested on charges of working for a suspected drug dealer to torture and
kill her enemies.

Judges are generally paid even less than police officers, who earn about
$80 a month. Late last year, Preval was forced to intervene in two
corruption cases, ordering the arrest of one judge because he inexplicably
released a reputed Dominican drug trafficker and relieving another judge
who was accused of taking bribes in several drug-related cases, according
to government officials.

There have been no successful prosecutions of drug cases in Haiti in at
least the last two years.

In a recent interview, police chief Pierre Denize acknowledged that
corruption is a major problem. "A corrupt system is very much alive,"
Denize said. "We have ports that are really open ports. There is
nonexistent and ridiculously weak security. Sure, they [traffickers] love
Haiti, understandably so. Basically it comes down to the point of least
resistance. This is the regional point of least resistance."

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