23 March 2004
U.S. Arrests Aide to Haitian Ex-President Aristide on Drug Charges
Oriel Jean served as Aristide's chief of palace security
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- An aide to former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been arrested by the United States on drug trafficking charges and is being held in a federal detention center in Miami.
A spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Miami said March 23 that Oriel Jean has been charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic cocaine. Specifically, Jean is accused of accepting large amounts of money in exchange for allowing cocaine shipments to move through Haiti. Jean was the chief of security at the Presidential Palace in Haiti's capital city of Port-au-Prince.
The DEA said it expected an indictment to be made soon against Jean as part of a broader investigation into drug trafficking emanating from Haiti.
The White House said in September 2003 that Haiti had "failed demonstrably" to comply with international agreements on fighting the illicit drug trade. Haiti was one of 23 countries on the U.S. government's so-called "Majors List" of major drug-transit or drug-producing countries.
The U.S. State Department said in its International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for 2003 that Haiti's geographical position, weak institutions, and subsistence economy have made it a "key conduit for drug traffickers transporting cocaine from South America to the United States and, to a lesser degree, Canada and Europe."
That report, released March 1, said Haiti's political and economic crises in 2003 eclipsed the country's fight against drug trafficking and that "serious allegations persisted that high-level government and police officials are involved in drug trafficking."
The DEA said Canadian officials had detained Jean after he went to Canada following Aristide's resignation February 29 as Haiti's president. News reports indicated that subsequent to the Canadian detention Jean voluntarily turned himself in to U.S. law enforcement officials, who took him into custody March 19.
The United States has been conducting an investigation "for quite some time" about drug trafficking emanating from Haiti and the Caribbean, a DEA official indicated. The official added that "we've had plenty of previous arrests out of Haiti" regarding drug trafficking. The official said Jean's arrest has attracted widespread attention in Canada and the United States because the arrest followed worldwide media coverage of Aristide's recent resignation.
The DEA said it would continue to investigate the larger case involving Jean, and it anticipates other drug traffickers being arrested -- Haitians and those from other countries.
The State Department said in its March narcotics report that the U.S. plan for combating illegal drug trafficking via Haiti remains focused on interdiction, police cooperation, and judicial institution-building. Stemming the flow of illegal narcotics through Haiti remains a cornerstone of U.S. counter-narcotics policy, the State Department said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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