25763: Holmstead (News): UPI-Aristide aide describes drug payments (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead    <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>


Aristide aide describes drug payments

MIAMI, July 20 (UPI) -- The ex-security chief for
former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says
he was paid by a drug lord to protect cocaine
shipments to the United States.

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Oriel Jean testified Tuesday at the trial of Serge
Edouard that the alleged Haitian drug kingpin gave him
and other law enforcement officials hundreds of
thousands of dollars to protect cocaine shipments, the
Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

Jean did not implicate Aristide, who is living in
exile in South Africa.

The report said prosecutor Lynn Kirkpatrick did not
explicitly ask Jean if he or Edouard ever gave any
money to the deposed president. Haiti was widely
regarded as a conduit for cocaine trafficking.

Jean testified he gave Edouard a national security
badge in 2002, allowing Edouard to travel throughout
Haiti without having to be searched by law enforcement
personnel.

Jean has pleaded guilty to a money-laundering
conspiracy charge in hopes of reducing his upcoming
sentence.

Edouard is accused of shipping tons of cocaine to the
United States in luggage and cargo containers on
American Airlines flights.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All
Rights Reserved.



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