The island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, is situated along a major shipping route for drug smuggling between Colombia and Puerto Rico.
Because Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States, shipments are generally not subject to further U.S. Customs inspection after reaching the territory.
[1] U.S. government agencies estimate that 83 metric tons or about eight percent of the cocaine entering the United States in 2006 transited either Haiti or the Dominican Republic.
[5] Other Colombian traffickers (Enrique Arroyave and Carlos Marcantoni) identified François and General Raoul Cédras as among a group of Haitian military attending a 1987 party in Colombia held to celebrate the Colombia-Haiti drug connection's shipment of 66,000 pounds of cocaine.
Canadian police arrested Oriel Jean, Aristide's security chief and one of his most trusted friends, for money laundering.