#4165: Police seize boat load of cocaine in Haiti (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

WIRE:06/09/2000 19:28:00 ET
 Police seize boat load of cocaine in
Haiti                                          
 PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 9 (Reuters) Haitian police said they  seized about
  330 pounds (150 kg) of cocaine from a  private boat  outside of the
capital on Friday. This morning we were informed by police in Grand
Goave  that at least 140 or 150 kg (308 to 330 pounds) of cocaine were 
found on board a boat," said Mario Anderson, central director  of
judicial police in Port-au-Prince.Anderson said he sent a team to
investigate the find in Grand Goave, about 30 miles (50 km) from the   
capital.The seizure comes amid increasing pressure to crack          
down on  drug smuggling in Haiti, which the U.S. government considers a 
main shipping point for Colombian cocaine bound for the United 
States.The U.S. State Department said in March that 67 tons       
(tonnes) of cocaine from South America passed through Haiti in  1999, up
24 percent from year-earlier totals.Haiti accounted for nearly 14
percent of all the cocaine  reaching the United States last year, up
from 10 percent in  1998, the State Department said.At the same time,
Haitian authorities seized only 946pounds  (430 kg) of cocaine in 1999,
about a third of the total they  seized the previous year, U.S.
officials said.