Haiti guard a DEA drug suspect
He was assigned to home of president before assassination
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The commander in charge of guarding the Haitian president’s home quickly became a suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last month when his security team inexplicably melted away, enabling hitmen to enter the residence with little resistance and kill the president in his own bedroom.
But current and former officials say that the commander, Dimitri Herard, was already a suspect in a separate case that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has pursued for years: the disappearance of hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of cocaine and heroin that were whisked away by corrupt officials only hours before law enforcement agents showed up to seize them.
Now, some international officials assisting with the investigation into the president’s assassination say they are examining whether those criminal networks help explain the killing.
Haitian officials, including the country’s prime minister, have acknowledged that the official explanation presented in the days after the assassination — that Moise was gunned down in an elaborate plot to seize political office — does not entirely add up and that the true motive behind the murder has not been uncovered.
The Carribean country is a major transit point for drugs heading to the U.S.
Officials from the U.S. and U.N. say the trade flourishes through an array of politicians, businesspeople and members of law enforcement who abuse their power. Now, current and former officials say that Herard has long been a focal point of the investigation into one of the biggest drug-trafficking cases the DEA has ever pursued in Haiti.
“The corruption goes up to the top levels,” said Keith McNichols, a former DEA agent who was stationed in Haiti and led the agency’s investigation into the missing drug shipment. “Justice is elusive.”
The sprawling drug case not only involves Herard but also judges and the brother-in-law of a former Haitian president. Officials say the staggering quantity of drugs spirited away by officials illustrates the extent to which Haiti has become a narco-state — with Haitian politicians, members of the judiciary and even U.S. DEA officials enabling corruption for years.
When a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship called the MV Manzanares docked at a privately owned seaport in Haiti’s capital in April 2015, officials say that longshoremen began offloading what they thought were bags full of sugar — until one ripped open, revealing the valuable, illicit goods inside.
Fights broke out among the longshoremen as they stole what they could of the enormous stash of cocaine and heroin, officials say. Security guards fired into the air to stop the looting, with the ruckus alerting McNichols and the Haitian anti-narcotics police to the chaos unfolding at the port.
But before they could get there, two Jeeps sped up to the dock. Instead of making arrests, men in presidential guard and other police uniforms emerged, and furiously grabbed bags of cocaine and heroin, throwing loads into their vehicles before speeding away, witnesses and officials say.
Shouting commands to some of the guards was Herard, a member of the presidential security force at the time, according to a witness interviewed by The New York Times and to McNichols, who arrived about two hours later.
Witnesses not only told him about Herard’s actions at the port but also that most of the illicit cargo — as much as 1,760 pounds of cocaine and 660 pounds of heroin — had already been hauled away. A former U.N. official confirmed that Herard had been spotted at the port and accused of deploying members of the presidential guard to ferry the drugs off the ship.
In all, about 264 pounds of cocaine and heroin were eventually recovered during a 28-day search by Haiti’s anti-narcotics unit, the DEA and the U.S. Coast Guard. Even the recovered amount makes it one of the biggest drug busts on record in Haiti.
The DEA would not comment on its investigation into the fiasco at the port. None of the main suspects have been arrested.
The case led to a whistleblower complaint that the agency was not doing enough to fight drug trafficking in Haiti.
Multiple witnesses have accused Herard of working with Charles Saint-Remy, the brother-in-law of former President Michel Martelly; Bernard Mevs, whose family owns the terminal where the ship docked; and members of the Acra family, who imported the sugar the ship was carrying, to bring drugs into Haiti, according to a current senior U.S. official who worked on the case as well.
Herard is in Haitian custody, detained in connection with the assassination. The president’s widow has demanded to know what happened to the dozens of guards Herard commanded and why none of them were killed when assailants stormed her home July 7, wounding her and shooting her husband dead on the floor beside her.
Herard could not be reached for comment in detention and his lawyer declined to pass on questions to his client. A spokesperson for the Haitian National Police denied that the force was involved in narcotics trafficking.
Officials say the staggering quantity of drugs spirited away by officials illustrates the extent to which Haiti has become a narco-state — with Haitian politicians, members of the judiciary and even U.S. DEA officials enabling corruption for years.