21504: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-U.S. official: Haitian drug trade slowing (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004


WAR AGAINST DRUGS


U.S. official: Haitian drug trade slowing

A U.S. State Department official reports during a stop in Miami that
drug-trafficking running through post-Aristide Haiti has declined.

BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY

mottey@herald.com


The flow of illegal drugs through Haiti and into the U.S. market has dropped
since the departure of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the
arrival of U.S. Marines, a top U.S. State Department official said Thursday.

''Today there are fewer drug-trafficking incursions in Haiti,'' Robert B.
Charles, in charge of department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement Affairs, said during a visit to Miami.

Charles credited the new Haitian government, the presence of foreign troops
and interdiction efforts for the change, and said Haiti's new political
reality presents a golden opportunity to further and significantly reduce
the flow of drugs through that impoverished nation.

In an interview with The Herald, Charles said Haiti had become a major
pipeline for heroin, marijuana and cocaine produced in Colombia.

According to Charles, 7 percent to 9 percent of drugs that reach the United
States comes through the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the
Dominican Republic. He said that drug traffickers have thrived in Haiti
because of the political instability, economic hardships, and corruption.

But Charles added that he's seen signs from the interim government of Prime
Minister Gerard Latortue that drug trafficking will not be tolerated.

On April 3 three Jamaicans were caught on Haiti's southern coast attempting
to smuggle 2,112 pounds of marijuana into the United States. Haiti handed
over the suspects to U.S. agents.

Charles, who assumed his job in October, said his department will work with
Haiti to rebuild a national police that can crack down on the drug
trafficking. Under Aristide, police were accused of taking bribes to turn a
blind eye to drug trafficking, including drug-carrying airplanes landing on
the nation's highways to unload their cargos.

''Corruption had spread like ink on an ink blotter,'' said Charles.
``There's no question that Route 9 was used by traffickers. There was a
clear narcotics trafficking problem.''

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