Posted on 07/07/2004 7:43:41 AM PDT by JesseHousman
Expelled from the Dominican Republic, an ex-Haitian police chief is charged in Miami with helping to smuggle cocaine through Port-au-Prince airport.
A former Haitian National Police commander in charge of law enforcement at the Port-au-Prince airport shook down drug traffickers for tens of thousands of dollars and let them fly cocaine-filled planes to the United States, a criminal complaint alleges.
Romaine Lestin, expelled Friday from the Dominican Republic on a smuggling conspiracy charge, appeared Tuesday before a Miami magistrate judge without a lawyer and did not respond to the charges.
Lestin, 35, told Magistrate Judge Robert L. Dube that he needed a court-appointed lawyer. He said he had only $500 in American money and $10,000 in Haitian money -- about U.S. $1,333 -- in bank accounts.
He is being held without bail, at least until a bond hearing Friday, and is to be arraigned July 20.
Lestin is the latest suspect grabbed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in its investigation into narcotics activity in the government of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Among those arrested in the widening probe: Aristide's former presidential security guard, a former pro-Aristide senator and four senior Haitian National Police officers.
Lestin had three police positions -- commander of the SWAT unit, police chief of the community of Tabre, a suburb of the capital, and police chief of the airport from January 2001 to February 2004. It was in that third role that Lestin sought kickbacks from Colombian and Haitian drug traffickers, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
One government drug informant, who has been identified in federal court as convicted trafficker Jacques Ketant, told the DEA that Lestin used his ''position at the Port-au-Prince airport to facilitate the flow of drugs out of Haiti,'' the criminal affidavit said.
ALLEGED ACTIVITIES
Ketant told agents, for instance, that he and another drug trafficker paid $100,000 to a former director of the Haitian National Police, identified as Jude Perrin, to move a shipment of 240 kilos to the United States, the affidavit said. Ketant said that after the drugs were shipped, Lestin ''complained'' he not received his cut.
Another drug informant, identified in federal court as Aristide's former presidential security chief, Oriel Jean, implicated Lestin in the National Haitian Police seizure of $450,000 in drug proceeds from Carlos Ovalle, an admitted Colombian trafficker, at the Port-au-Prince airport in the summer of 2002, according to the affidavit.
KEPT $150,000
Jean told DEA agents that senior police officials -- including Lestin -- negotiated the return of $300,000 to Ovalle, the affidavit said. But Jean said the officials kept the remaining $150,000 for themselves.
The DEA accelerated its arrests of former Haitian police and officials after Aristide's ouster, though the probe was a product of a five-year crackdown.
This makes one wonder just what is going on under the benevolent dictatorship of Fidel? How much cocaine pushing is the bearded one behind?
Good question. A number of years back, he regularly allowed Cuban waters to be used as safe haven. Since FARC is dependent on cocaine-for-guns, I will not be surprised if Fidel is part of that network, in fact I think you can count on it.
Of course, FARC has grown in its global reach, and is able to bring flights directly in from the ex-Soviet states and from the middle east. A lot of its supplies come in through Ecuador and Brazil, as well. But I believe Cuba remains a key part of the puzzle. Maybe someone else can comment...
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