Aristide was drug lord, U.S. claims

[rawstory]

As seen on The Raw Story, http://rawstory.com

Days before President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced out of Haiti, a notorious cocaine trafficker stood before a federal judge in Miami and said Aristide, once his friend, had turned Haiti into "a narco-country."

"The man is a drug lord," Beaudouin "Jacques" Ketant told U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno on Feb. 25. "He controlled the drug trade in Haiti." His country in rebellion, Aristide left four days later aboard a plane provided by the U.S. government.

In recent weeks, it has become clear that federal law enforcement officials in South Florida are putting a lot of stock in what Ketant has to say. The high-living cocaine trafficker has emerged as a central figure in an investigation that has snagged five former Haitian officials and appears to have Aristide in its sights.

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Observers of Haiti say a combination of forces conspired to increase the cocaine supply and deepen corruption after Aristide was elected in 2000. They include a decision to freeze millions in U.S. aid and a crackdown on Colombian smuggling routes through Mexico and at the U.S. border.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/8973278.htm

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Don't know how much I believe this, but...