MIAMI - (Associated Press) Haiti's former national police director has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge with days left before other former Haitian police officials face trial on charges they protected Colombian cocaine shipments through their destitute homeland.
Jean Nesly Lucien, who was arrested in Miami last May, pleaded guilty to a money laundering count Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke. The charge carries a possible 20-year sentence, but prosecutors agreed to recommend less if he cooperates against three co-defendants.
Lucien, 43, was accused of tipping off cocaine traffickers in Haiti after the Drug Enforcement Administration learned about incoming shipments and helping steer DEA agents away from drugs.
An informant also told DEA agents that Lucien and former Haitian anti-drug chief Evintz Brillant seized $450,000 in drug profits from a Colombian trafficker in 2002, returned $300,000, split the rest with other corrupt officers and agreed to split the take on future drug shipments through the airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
Facing trial Monday are Brillant, former Haitian national police commander Rudy Therassan and Romaine Lestin, a former Port-au-Prince airport police chief.
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04-13-05, 05:29 AM
Jean Nesly Lucien pleads guilty in drug case 
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