30513: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Drugs (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 31 (AP) -- Authorities arrested 10 people, including
four police officers, who were allegedly transporting 925 pounds of cocaine
in two vehicles with government license plates.
   Acting on a tip, police discovered the drugs Thursday after stopping the
cars in the rural town of Leogane, just west of the capital of
Port-au-Prince, police spokesman Frantz Lerebours told reporters. It was
one of the largest drug seizures in Haiti in years.
   Eight Haitians were arrested, including four active members of the
National Police, Lerebours said. Two Colombian nationals were later
arrested on suspicion of involvement.
   Both vehicles had government license plates although one was a rental
car, Lerebours said. Police also seized three automatic rifles, five
pistols and a shotgun.
   President Rene Preval has pledged to clean up Haiti's notoriously
corrupt police force, which has only a few thousand poorly paid officers to
patrol this impoverished nation of 8 million people.
   Haiti is a major transshipment point for South American cocaine bound
for the United States.