Troubled island used as transit site for South American drugs

 BY DON BOHNING
 Herald Staff Writer

 The cries of concern are becoming louder and more frequent over Haiti's growing
 role as a transshipment point for Colombian cocaine entering the United States,
 but U.S. officials acknowledge the solution is as elusive as ever.

 The increased focus on Haiti as a drug transit outpost comes at a time of
 increasing political turmoil and economic despair as the Caribbean country heads
 toward long-awaited parliamentary and presidential elections.

 The U.S. government estimates 67 tons, or 14 percent, of all cocaine destined for
 the United States from South America came through Haiti in 1999, up from 54
 tons, or 10 percent, in 1998.

 SEIZURES DOWN

 At the same time, a U.S. government report notes, Haitian police seized only 430
 kilograms of cocaine in 1999, less than a third of the amount seized the year
 before.
 ``This decline in seizures may be due in part to a shift by Colombian traffickers
 from maritime drug shipments to airdrops,'' adds the report. ``The latter are
 effectively beyond the reach of Haitian law enforcement units.''

 The apparent surge also came as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has
 beefed up its presence in Haiti, from only temporary personnel to eight permanent
 people in 1999.

 The problem was dramatized in early February when U.S. Customs seized more
 than 3,400 pounds of cocaine from five vessels arriving in Miami from Haiti.

 Haiti ``is descending into frightening depths of drug corruption and violence,'' Rep.
 Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations
 Committee, told a congressional hearing last week.

 ``In fact,'' added Gilman, ``Haiti is becoming a narco-state.''

 While not necessarily agreeing with Gilman's characterization, U.S. drug czar
 Barry McCaffrey, in a meeting this week with The Herald's editorial board, called
 the situation in Haiti `` awful . . . I don't know what to do about it.''

 LOW RESISTANCE

 ``It's bad now and getting worse,'' Rep. Porter Goss, a Florida Republican and
 chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a telephone interview. The
 drug trade, Goss said, is ``destabilizing . . . in terms of any hope for democratic
 processes in Haiti.''

 For the second straight year, Haiti received a ``conditional'' certification --
 essentially a waiver -- in the State Department's annual International Narcotics
 Control Strategy Report assessing the cooperation of 28 major drug-producing
 and drug-transitting countries.

 ``Haiti's weak democratic institutions, fledgling police force and eroding
 infrastructure provide South American-based narcotics traffickers with a path of
 very little resistance,'' the report said.

 Sources in Haiti familiar with the drug trade there question whether the transit
 problem is getting worse or it is ``just now getting light shone on it'' as a result of
 the February seizures in Miami that ``really perked people up.''

 They also note that the nature of the transit problem in Haiti is changing from
 so-called go-fast boats from Colombia bringing cocaine to the country's southern
 peninsula to single-engine planes ferrying it to the north of Haiti. From there it is
 shipped by freighter to the United States, with Cap-Haitien and Fort-Liberte the
 north coast departure ports of choice.

 Even the nature of the air transport has changed, the sources say, from airdrops
 in the water to nighttime landings at remote Haitian airstrips. In December, three
 small planes believed to be carrying drugs crashed in the country; a fourth was
 seized in January.

 Cocaine planes taking off from Colombia en route to Haiti are benefiting from
 Venezuela's refusal to allow U.S. drug surveillance planes to use its airspace,
 U.S. officials say.

 ``As a result, we believe that drug smugglers are now using Venezuelan airspace
 to thwart law enforcement . . . , '' John Varone, a high-ranking Customs official,
 told a House subcommittee hearing last week.

 `WITH IMPUNITY'

 Varone noted that ``many factors have converged in recent years to make Haiti
 `the path of least resistance' in the Caribbean for drug smugglers. Record
 quantities of cocaine are being smuggled there.''

 Varone cited, among other things, Haiti's location, its ``tenuous political situation
 . . . lack of law enforcement infrastructure and/or marine enforcement capabilities
 and the corrupting influence of drug trafficking,'' which has allowed drug smugglers
 to ``operate there with impunity.''

 Pierre Denize, chief of Haiti's fledgling police force, acknowledged in a recent
 interview that the drug problem in Haiti ``is very serious in terms of volume and
 also in terms of impact. It carries its own brand of violence and brings with it arms
 trafficking and in general organized crime sectors that benefit from it.''