22117: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-2 ex-Haiti police officials charged with federal drug offences (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

2 ex-Haiti police officials charged with federal drug offenses

by Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
Posted May 28 2004

Two more former Haitian police officials were charged in Miami with federal
drug offenses on Thursday in the growing investigation of cocaine
trafficking and corruption under ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Both were identified in court documents as high-ranking officers in the
Haitian National Police. Jean Nesly Lucien was the national police
director-general in 2000 and 2001. Evintz Brillant was chief of narcotics
from the summer of 2002 until the Aristide government fell this year.











They were the third and fourth top Haitian officials arrested in the United
States since Aristide was forced out on Feb. 29.

The others are Oriel Jean, former head of Aristide's palace security detail,
and Rudy Therassan, one-time national police commander of investigations.

All four have been accused of conspiring to import cocaine into the United
States. Lucien and Brillant were taken into federal custody in Miami on
Wednesday. They appeared briefly before U.S. Magistrate Barry L. Garber
Thursday afternoon, but did not enter pleas.

Affidavits unsealed Thursday shed more light on the depth of official
corruption cocaine money allegedly brought to the impoverished island
nation. They document that Haiti's police took hundreds of thousands of
dollars to protect Colombian cocaine shipments that passed through the
country on the way to the United States.

The affidavits state that Lucien tipped off cocaine traffickers when the
Drug Enforcement Administration became aware of incoming loads. And, he
allegedly helped steer DEA agents away from other cocaine shipments.

Lucien denied involvement in Haitian cocaine trafficking, his lawyer said.

"He doesn't know what it's all about," said defense attorney Stephen
Golembe.

He said that his client was taken into custody at a relative's house in
Miami. He had been planning to visit a college-age child in Boston, Golembe
said.

During the summer of 2002, court papers state, Lucien and Brillant allegedly
confiscated $450,000 in drug money at the Port-au-Prince airport.

They returned $300,000 to trafficker Carlos Ovalle after skimming $150,000
for themselves.

Among the Haitian officials sharing the skim was one of the U.S.
government's informants in the current investigation. A defense attorney
identified him at a hearing last week as Oriel Jean, the former palace
security chief.

Jean, 39, was one of Aristide's most trusted aides. He was arrested in
Toronto, brought to Miami, and charged with drug trafficking in March.

Brillant allegedly shook down drug traffickers for bribes, court documents
stated.

According to the affidavit by DEA agent Noble Harrison, several confidential
sources helped Assistant U.S. Attorney David Weinstein build a case by
linking the defendants to cocaine trafficking, and protection payoffs. Three
of the sources also have cooperated in the cases against Jean and Therassan.

The documents also state that Lucien and Brillant met with an informant
referred to in court papers only as a convicted cocaine trafficker. A
defense attorney identified that informant as Beaudouin "Jacques" Ketant at
a previous hearing.

Ketant, who made $10 million a year trafficking in cocaine, is seeking to
shorten a 27-year federal prison sentence.

At his sentencing Feb. 25, four days before Aristide's government fell, he
angrily blamed his former friend and leader for turning Haiti into a
"narco-country."

He continued his tirade: "Everybody in Haiti in the business, you have to
pay. Aristide demands and obtains payment. It's a one-man show. Either you
pay him or you die ... "

"The man is a drug lord. He controls the drug empire in Haiti."

The affidavits state that Brillant "was being groomed" to replace Therassan
as commander of investigations. Therassan, according to the documents, had
been "providing security to major drug traffickers operating in Haiti."

It would have been a big promotion. According to the affidavits, Therassan
made $150,000 a load, plus the profits from 35 kilos of cocaine. Brillant
was making $50,000 a load plus profits from five kilos.

Therassan, who was arrested this month, is jailed without bail.

The grand jury investigation of drug corruption in Haiti is an open secret.
Bush administration and U.S. Justice Department officials have said publicly
that authorities are looking into whether Aristide, once a populist priest,
and other members of his administration were corrupted by drug money.
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