Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
directly, but most are smuggled across the border to the
Dominican Republic for onward transit to the United States,
Canada, and Europe.
The de facto military government of 1991-94 maintained a
minimal drug enforcement effort, with the primary responsibility
for antidrug operations assigned to the army and police
units under army control. The air force and navy did not have
the resources to make a material contribution to drug interdiction.
Rumors abounded of senior officials linked to drug trafficking,
although direct evidence was lacking. After the army
command announced that any member linked to drug trafficking
would be expelled from the military and subjected to civil
prosecution, some low-ranking officers and enlisted personnel
were reassigned or dismissed. However, the civil judicial system
declined to prosecute military personnel on drug charges.
United States efforts to help the Haitian counternarcotics
effort were suspended while the military regime was in power.
Under the Preval government, primary responsibility for
drug suppression was brought under the Ministry of Justice
and Public Security's special adviser on narcotics matters.
Enforcement is primarily the responsibility of the Counternarcotics
Unit of the national police. The Haitian Coast Guard,
activated with United States help, cooperated with the United
States Coast Guard in several significant seizures in 1997, its
first year. As a result of these operations, the Haitian Coast
Guard was able to add to its inventory three high-speed vessels
that had been confiscated from drug dealers.
Although Haiti's role is secondary to that of the Dominican
Republic in the drug transit trade, the feeble resources of the
PNH and the corruption of the Haitian justice system have
made Haitian territory increasingly inviting for illegal narcotics
shipments. Oceangoing speedboats can leave Colombia at dusk
and arrive at the Haitian coast before daybreak with little risk
of detection. Drug loads can then be carried across the border
to the Dominican Republic or smuggled to Florida on freighters.
United States authorities have estimated that nearly sixtyseven
tons of cocaine passed through Haiti in 1999. This figure
represented 14 percent of the total amount of cocaine produced
in South America in that year.
In 1998 the PNH made eighty-six drug-related arrests; none
of those arrested were considered major drug traffickers. Of
those detained, thirty-four were Colombians. None of those
brought before the courts in 1997 or 1998 resulted in success-
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