21909: Lemieux: CNN: Former Haiti police chief arrested (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Former Haiti police chief arrested
>From Susan Candiotti
CNN
May 16, 2004



MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- U.S. federal agents have
arrested Haiti's former national police chief in
Miami, as part of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's ongoing investigation into drug
trafficking in the Caribbean nation, according to
a DEA spokesman and court documents.

Rudy Therassan will appear in federal court
Monday to face a single count of conspiracy to
import cocaine into the United States, according
to DEA spokesman Special Agent Joe Kilmer.

The court document alleges Therassan supervised
drug trafficking operations while he served as
the commander of the Haitian National Police
Brigade from April 2001 until approximately
August 2003.

The affidavit is based on the testimony of four
confidential sources: a former Haitian drug
trafficker who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking
charges; a "cooperating witness" who has
connections to targets of the investigation; a
former Haitian government official who has been
charged in the case, hoping for a reduced
sentence; and a former Haitian police officer who
has never been charged or convicted.

A law enforcement source, familiar with the
investigation, identified the first source as
Beaudouin "Jacques" Ketant who -- according to a
State Department document -- was arrested in June
2003 in Haiti and transported to Miami to face
drug and murder charges in the U.S.

In the court document, one of the informants
testified he witnessed Therassan shoot and kill
Ketant's brother, Haitian drug trafficker Hector
Ketant, and his bodyguard after a dispute over
money.

The informant, described as a former government
official, testified that Therassan was ordered by
an unnamed Haitian government official to kill
Ketant.

After allegedly killing him, Therassan recovered
a list of government officials involved in
Ketant's drug business, the informant said.

Therassan told police after the February 2003
shooting that he and other police officers acted
in self-defense while attempting to arrest
Ketant.

The criminal complaint describes in detail the
extent of Therassan's alleged involvement in drug
trafficking, using his power as Haiti's police
commander to provide security to drug shipments
from South America.

The document alleges Therassan received $150,000
in cash for each plane-load of cocaine he allowed
to land on Haiti's Route 9. The drugs were
subsequently smuggled into the U.S., it states.

The U.S. has charged that Haiti, under deposed
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was a
"key conduit for drug traffickers transporting
cocaine from South America to the United States,"
according to the U.S. State Department's
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report
for 2003.

Furthermore, "elements of that government were
corrupt and shot through with drug money,"
according to Robert Charles of International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

In March, the DEA arrested Oriel Jean, a former
aide to Aristide, on drug trafficking charges.

Aristide left office in February 2003 and went
into exile. A caretaker government is running
Haiti pending elections next year.





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