15965: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Long-sought Haitian drug suspect arrested, taken to Mia (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Jun. 19, 2003

Long-sought Haitian drug suspect arrested, taken to Miami
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
llebowitz@herald.com

For six long years, the Drug Enforcement Administration salivated for a
chance to bring reputed Haitian cocaine trafficker Jacques Beaudoin Ketant
to justice.

But Ketant was virtually untouchable, living in an ornate mansion with
wrought-iron balconies on a hilltop overlooking Port-au-Prince, occasionally
dropping by his discotheque a half-mile away. His son rubbed shoulders with
the children of diplomats at an elite American school in Haiti.

But the reputed drug trafficker found himself in a Miami courtroom Wednesday
after a parent-teacher conference ran seriously awry.

Summoned to discuss his son's recent misbehavior, Ketant arrived with his
normal coterie of bodyguards. But when they left minutes later, the
schoolteacher was bloody from a severe beating.

Outraged American officials complained to Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, who personally signed off on Ketant's arrest Tuesday.

''Basically, after that, the embassy was screaming at Aristide to get this
guy out of here,'' said a source familiar with the case. ``And [Aristide]
totally went along with it.''

Initial reports indicated Aristide had summoned Ketant to the presidential
palace, where he was arrested. But sources said the Aristide phone-call
scenario was part of an initial plan that never took place.

Instead, Ketant was arrested at his posh home in the Vivi Michel
neighborhood outside the capital.

Haitian officials immediately expelled Ketant, freeing DEA agents and deputy
U.S. marshals to put him on a plane bound for Puerto Rico, then Miami for
his initial appearance Wednesday in front of a federal magistrate.

''It was a joint operation between the Haitian National Police and the DEA
and the marshals,'' said Miami attorney Ira Kurzban, general counsel for the
Haitian government in the United States. ``This cooperation is a major step
forward for Haiti.''

REPORTS UNCLEAR

According to the sources, Ketant's son had gotten in trouble with one of his
teachers at The Union School, a private American academy run by Jesuits. The
reputed trafficker arrived at the parent-teacher conference with his
omnipresent phalanx of thugs. Reports are unclear exactly who beat the
teacher.

While the U.S. attorney's office and the DEA in Miami declined to comment
Wednesday, Ketant is clearly a major catch. The producers of America's Most
Wanted dedicated a September 2001 segment to him.

DEA officials have told Congress that Ketant oversaw a broad transportation
and distribution network of ''mules'' and ''couriers'' who carried tons of
Colombian cocaine into the United States on airplanes and boats at entry
points that included Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, New York and
Chicago.

BRIBED OFFICIALS

Ketant's organization bribed customs officials at Miami International
Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Evens Gorgue, the MIA employee paid to turn his head as drug couriers passed
through U.S. Customs, cooperated with authorities and had his 14-year
sentence shaved to four years. Gorgue was accused of buying an expensive
Parkland home, a Miramar condominium and several Margate apartments with his
bribe money.

According to court records, the conspiracy dates back to 1987, when the
brain trust of the old Medellin cartel -- the late Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis
Ochoa and the late Jose Rodriguez-Gacha -- decided to pool their resources
and open a new cocaine route into the United States via Haiti.

Escobar sent Fernando Burgos-Martinez to pay off the Haitian military regime
to permit the safe landing of cocaine-laden airplanes on local airstrips.

Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles and correspondent Jane Regan
contributed to this report.

_________________________________________________________________
Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail