22772: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Trafficker who informed on Haitian officials gets 11 years

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Trafficker who informed on Haitian officials gets 11 years in plea deal

By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
Orlando sentinel
Posted July 20 2004

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OCALA · A drug trafficker whose cooperation with authorities led to the
arrests of former high-ranking Haitian officials on drug charges was
sentenced Monday to more than 11 years in federal prison.

Carlos Ovalle, 54, a Colombia native who had been living in Haiti, pleaded
guilty last fall to one count each of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and
laundering $2 million.

U.S. Senior District Judge William Terrell Hodges reluctantly agreed to the
11-year sentence only after a plea by a federal prosecutor that Ovalle has
collaborated extensively with investigators and will continue to do so.

"This truly is an exceptional case in which he provided valuable
information," Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Savell said at Ovalle's
sentencing in federal court in Ocala. "The word is out, and he has done this
at the risk to himself and his family."

Steven Amster, Ovalle's Miami-based attorney, said his client had hoped for
more leniency, considering his high level of cooperation. At one point,
Hodges said Ovalle's crimes warranted between 24 and 30 years in prison.

Savell admitted that Ovalle's information had been "funneled" to
"high-ranking officials in Washington" who were concerned about reports of
drug trafficking and corruption in the Haiti government.

Ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who left Haiti on Feb. 29 during an
uprising, is in exile in South Africa. U.S. officials have said his
administration remains under scrutiny.

In court, Amster said Ovalle had been in the drug business since the "mid-
to late '90s." In a plea agreement last fall, Ovalle said he had lived in
Haiti for 11 years before his arrest.

Investigators and informants say they suspect Ovalle of smuggling at least
$40 million worth of cocaine from Haiti to the United States in the last
decade.

Between 2000 and 2003, Ovalle communicated with several Central
Florida-based drug agents posing as money launderers. In three weeks in
2000, those agents received $2 million in drug proceeds to launder through
South Florida banks.

Ovalle later agreed to provide 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds, of cocaine
twice a month to the agents, who posed as sailors in a maritime shipping
operation that never materialized.

In the summer of 2002, Ovalle has told investigators, several former
high-ranking police officials seized $450,000 from him at a Port-au-Prince
airport and pocketed $150,000.

In August U.S. drug agents in Haiti arrested him and took him to
Orlando-Sanford International Airport aboard a U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration jet. He is being held in the Sumter County Jail, Amster said.

Savell identified the Haitian officials only by rank and position. But court
records named them: Oriel Jean, Aristide's former presidential palace
security chief; Jean Nesly Lucien, former Haitian police director; Evintz
Brillant, former anti-drug squad chief; Rudy Therassan, who was commander of
investigations; Romaine Lestin, a former Haitian SWAT commander; and
Jean-Marie Fourel Celestin, a Haitian senator and former Aristide ally.

Savell and Amster said they expect Ovalle to continue collaborating because
he has yet to testify against those former Haitian government officials,
whose cases will be prosecuted in Miami.

"Will this lead to Aristide? Who knows?" Amster said afterward. Aristide has
not been charged.

The Orlando Sentinel is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

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