Hti: Aristide gone, drug flow slowed

The flow of illegal drugs through Haiti and into the U.S. market has dropped since the departure of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the arrival of U.S. Marines, a top U.S. State Department official said Thursday.

''Today there are fewer drug-trafficking incursions in Haiti,'' Robert B. Charles, in charge of department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said during a visit to Miami.

Charles credited the new Haitian government, the presence of foreign troops and interdiction efforts for the change, and said Haiti's new political reality presents a golden opportunity to further and significantly reduce the flow of drugs through that impoverished nation.

In an interview with The Herald, Charles said Haiti had become a major pipeline for heroin, marijuana and cocaine produced in Colombia.