21913: (Chamberlain) Haitian-Drug Trafficking (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   MIAMI, May 15 (AP) -- A former commander of the Haitian national police
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, said Carlos Castillo, a spokesman
for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami. Therassan headed the Haitian
National Police Brigade 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 with one count of conspiracy to import cocaine into the
United States. It was unclear if Therassan, the second high-ranking Haitian
law-enforcement officer arrested on drug-trafficking charges since Aristide
left the country in February, had hired a lawyer.
   In March, Canadian authorities arrested Oriel Jean, chief of
presidential palace security for Aristide from 2001 to 2003, on a charge of
conspiring to smuggle cocaine. He was subsequently extradited to Florida.
   Four confidential informants helped U.S. officials build the case
against Therassan, according to the federal complaint. They said Therassan
accepted payments to let cocaine shipments pass through Haiti on the way to
the United States.
   Bush administration officials have 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.