AMERICAN NARCOTICS AGENT IN HAITI FOUGHT OFF GUNMAN

WASHINGTON - DEA agents are eager to hammer Colombian drug thugs in Haiti
after an ambush last month in which an American narc single- handedly
fought off more than a dozen gunmen, U.S. officials told the New York Daily
News.

The Drug Enforcement Administration agent, his wife and a female U.S.
Embassy official escaped unharmed from the previously undisclosed roadside
firefight on Feb. 16, a week into the uprising that toppled ex- President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"The DEA is eager to improve drug enforcement efforts in Haiti," DEA
Administrator Karen Tandy told The Daily News. "Although events are still
unfolding, we hope to have opportunities to do so in the near future."

The harrowing incident is the earliest known violence involving Americans
since the rebellion in Haiti began.

More than 1,600 Marines are serving as peacekeepers and have gotten into
nightly firefights that have led to the deaths of at least six Haitians.

Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, echoed top U.S. officials when
he alleged last week that Aristide encouraged Haitian police to help
Colombian drug smugglers and "sold out the DEA people."

"We are going to establish real cooperation with the DEA in all good faith
and we'll be their partners," Latortue told The News.

Latortue wasn't surprised to hear of the February ambush, which occurred
late at night on the road from Canape Vert and the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The Americans, traveling in two cars with diplomatic tags, were returning
from dinner when they passed through a police checkpoint. Almost
immediately, they came under fire from as many as 16 gunmen after slowing
down for road debris, sources told The News.

The DEA agent returned fire, allowing both cars to escape.

"We survived incredible odds in that gun battle and came out unscathed,"
Tandy said in a speech to new agents who graduated Friday. "I don't know
that the other side fared as well."