22053: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Aristide's former security chief was U.S. informant (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, May. 25, 2004



Aristide's former security chief was U.S. informant, attorney alleges
In a widening drug-conspiracy probe, federal investigators have targeted
narco-traffickers, senior Haitian police and a security chief in ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's administration -- perhaps using some as
informants.

BY JAY WEAVER
Miami Herald

The former security chief for deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide has been identified in court as a U.S. government informant in its
investigation of alleged drug trafficking by members of Aristide's
administration.

No evidence has been presented in open court linking Aristide -- now in
Jamaica making arrangements to go to South Africa -- to a suspected
narcotics conspiracy in the widening federal probe of high-ranking officials
in his toppled government.

But an attorney said in court that former Aristide security chief Oriel Jean
-- extradited in early March from Canada on a drug-smuggling conspiracy
charge -- was cooperating with the federal government.

On Friday, lawyer Lawrence Besser, representing a former commander in the
Haitian National Police, said Jean ''was seeking favors from the
government'' such as a reduced sentence in exchange for information about
Aristide's inner circle.

Federal prosecutors objected to Besser's identifying Jean as a confidential
source.

Besser said his client, Rudy Therassan, a commander in the Haitian National
Police, also provided information to the U.S Drug Enforcement Agency until
last year.

Therassan was arrested in Miami-Dade County earlier this month on a warrant
alleging he received hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect cocaine
shipments passing from Colombia via Haiti to the U.S.

At Therassan's detention hearing, Besser also identified another government
informant, Beaudoin ''Jacques'' Ketant, as the drug trafficker who paid
Therassan $150,000 for each planeload allowed to land on a major highway in
Haiti.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Kirkpatrick again objected but did not say
whether Ketant or Jean were informants.

In February, Ketant said in a Miami federal courtroom that he couldn't have
thrived without paying millions in bribes to his close friend, Aristide.

Ketant was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $30 million in
fines and forfeitures.

After his sentencing, Miami attorney Ira Kurzban, general counsel to the
Haitian government and an advisor to Aristide, said that Ketant's accusation
``is just another piece of the effort to politically assassinate President
Aristide.''

At Friday's detention hearing for Therassan, DEA agent Noble Harrison said
Therassan, as police commander, ''provided general information about various
drug traffickers'' in Haiti but was not a DEA informant.

He also said that when agents arrested Therassan at his Doral apartment,
they found financial documents showing he had ``multiple bank accounts.''

Harrison said his information came from confidential government informants
and a Miami federal grand jury reviewing the Haitian drug-conspiracy case.

_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar – get it now!
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/