FORMER HAITIAN POLICE HEAD ACCUSED OF COCAINE SMUGGLING

A former commander of the Haitian National Police Brigade was arrested
in Miami and accused of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United
States, the latest ex-official caught in a U.S. investigation of drug
trafficking under ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Rudy Therassan was arrested Friday after being pulled over by the
Florida Highway Patrol, said Carlos Castillo, a spokesman for the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Miami. Therassan headed the Haitian national
police from 2001 until last August, according to a criminal complaint.

Therassan, 39, who owns a house in Palm Beach County, was scheduled to
be charged Monday in Miami with one count of conspiracy to import
cocaine into the United States. He is the second high-ranking Haitian
law-enforcement officer arrested on drug-trafficking charges since
Aristide left the country in February.

Four confidential informants helped U.S. officials build the case
against Therassan, according to the complaint by Drug Enforcement
Administration agent Noble Harrison. They said Therassan accepted
payments to let cocaine shipments pass through Haiti on the way to the
United States.

The complaint said the DEA investigation was "into the activities of
drug traffickers who utilize Haiti as a transshipment point for
sending and receiving controlled substances and illegal proceeds"
between Colombia and the United States.

The informants include a Haitian convicted in Miami for cocaine
trafficking and money laundering and another high-ranking Haitian
police official awaiting trial on a federal drug charge, the complaint
said.

The Bush administration officials has said that Aristide led a
government that condoned official corruption, including drug
trafficking.

Ira Kurzban, a Miami lawyer who represents Aristide, has denied that
the former president had any dealings with drug traffickers.