21943: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Prosecutors: No bail for ex-Haitian official (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, May. 18, 2004




FEDERAL COURT


Prosecutors: No bail for ex-Haitian official


>From Herald Staff

Miami federal prosecutors on Monday recommended that a high-ranking Haitian
police official be held behind bars until a jury decides his fate on
drug-smuggling conspiracy charges.

Rudy Therassan, a former commander of an investigations unit of the Haitian
National Police, will learn Friday whether he will be eligible for bail.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Kirkpatrick urged Magistrate Judge Chris
McAliley to hold Therassan, 39, without bond because he is a risk of flight
and danger to the community.

The magistrate set Therassan's arraignment for June 1.

Therassan was arrested last Friday by the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration on a complaint accusing him of being an important player in
Haiti's drug trade. His arrest was the latest development in a federal probe
into alleged drug-trafficking by members of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's administration.

In an affidavit, an unidentified Haitian drug smuggler convicted in Miami
told the DEA that he paid Therassan $150,000 for each planeload that was
allowed to land on Route 9, a major highway in Haiti. According to the
informant, Therassan was supposed to distribute the money among 15 to 20
others helping to protect the cocaine in Haiti -- a trans-shipment point
between Colombia and the United States.

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