PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS HAVE DRUG TIES, SOURCES IN HAITI, U.S. CLAIM

Some Candidates For President Of Haiti Have Ties To Drug Traffickers,
According To Haitian And U.S. Officials

PORT-AU-PRINCE - At least three candidates in Haiti's upcoming
elections have links to a cocaine-trafficking industry that wants to
ensure the next government is weak and corruptible, a half-dozen
Haitian and U.S. officials say.

Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates -- Guy Philippe
and Dany Toussaint -- have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

And a Senate candidate who's a nephew of interim Prime Minister
Gerard Latortue has close links to a gang that controls drug
smuggling in the port of Gonaives, according to the Haitian and U.S. officials.

Haiti, where the average person struggles on less than $1 a day, is a
pass-through point for about 8 percent of the Colombian cocaine
detected heading to U.S. streets, according to U.S. State Department
narcotics reports.

Despite the presence of 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed after the
rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year, the
arrival of cocaine "is essentially unimpeded," said the State
Department's 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Analysts fear that traffickers are quietly working to subvert any
return to an elected democracy, either by backing candidates they can
control or sowing chaos on the streets to delay the balloting.

"At this point the entire transition is at risk," said Mark
Schneider, of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that
analyzes conflict around the world. "Drug traffickers don't want a
functioning, effective government with a functioning, effective
police force and customs."

"They have their hooks in the police, they have their hooks in parts
of the transitional government," he added.

SUSPICIONS

U.S. prosecutors in Miami have gone after 10 of the biggest
traffickers and corrupt officials of the Aristide years. But there
are plenty of suspicions about officials of the current interim government.

Diplomats and counter-drug agents have expressed particular concerns
about Youri Latortue -- the security chief for his uncle, the prime
minister, and a Senate candidate for the Gonaives region, a major
drug-smuggling area.

The U.S. Embassy warned the prime minister in private in March of
2004 that his nephew was linked to illegal activities and should not
be part of the government, according to one top U.S. official
familiar with the issue, who requested anonymity because he's not
authorized to discuss the issue. At that time, Washington refused the
nephew a U.S. visa.

'MR. 30 PERCENT'

The French newspaper Le Figaro last year reported the nephew's
nickname was "Mr. 30 Percent" for the commissions he allegedly
demands on government contracts.

The prime minister publicly defended his nephew, saying he trusted
him and, in a nation that has seen 32 coups in 200 years, he wanted
the nephew to stay on as his chief of security and intelligence.

U.N. Civilian Police are concerned that Youri Latortue is trying to
take control of the diplomatic lounge at the Port-au-Prince
international airport, one way that drug traffickers have
traditionally bypassed official scrutiny while entering and leaving
Haiti, one top U.N. official told The Miami Herald.

And there are credible reports that Youri has close ties to a gang of
armed thugs in Gonaives that controls the drug trafficking through
the seaport, the official added.

Youri Latortue, meanwhile, has struck a political alliance with Guy
Philippe, one of the leaders of the rebellion that ousted Aristide
and now a candidate for the presidency. The two apparently knew each
other when they served in the Haitian police.

DISPUTES ACCUSATION

The DEA suspected Philippe was involved in drug trafficking when he
was police chief in the northern port of Cap Haitien, Haiti's second
biggest city. U.S. drug agents once tried to recruit Philippe as an
informant, but he turned them down, saying that the traffickers paid
him more, two top U.S. officials told The Miami Herald.

Philippe has vehemently denied such allegations. "Where is the
evidence?" he asked, in an interview with The Miami Herald last year.

But he has acknowledged that one of his rebellion's financial
supporters was a Canadian-Haitian businessman named Jean-Claude
Louis-Jean -- who has been linked to the drug trade by the
International Crisis Group. Haitian police arrested Louis-Jean in
September 2004, though it is unclear what the charges are against him.

Philippe vigorously defended his friend in an interview at the time
with Radio Metropole.

"The judicial authorities will have to say why they arrested him and
of what they accuse him," he said. "I just hope that they will not
say that there are rumors that he is involved in drug dealing, as
they always do."

When Aristide fled, Philippe put down his weapons and formed a
political party. He is among 35 presidential candidates on the ballot
for the election tentatively scheduled for Jan. 8. A CID-Gallup poll
in November showed him a distant third, with 4 percent, behind former
President Rene Preval with 32 percent and Leslie Manigat with 5 percent.

CRITICAL ISSUE

Rebuilding the corrupt police force has been the perhaps most
critical priority for the U.S. State Department and the U.N.
peacekeeping mission here. The newly-appointed police chief, Mario
Andresol, has estimated in media interviews that at least 25 percent
of his force is corrupt.

U.N. officials say they fear that some of the officers may be more
loyal to Dany Toussaint, a senator and chief of police under Aristide
who broke with the president in 2003 and is now running for president.

Long labeled by U.S. officials as a suspected trafficker, and now the
owner of a security business, Toussaint got 2 percent support in the
CID-Gallup poll, behind nine other candidates.

Toussaint has denied the drug allegations and brushed off the claim
that he controls some police officers.