Joseph-Michel François was a colonel in the Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an army. As Haiti Chief of National Police he participated in the 1991 Haitian coup d'état

1991 Haitian coup d'état

The 1991 Haitian coup d'état took place on 29 September 1991 when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, elected 8 months earlier in the Haitian general election, 1990–1991, was deposed by the Haitian army. The coup was led by Army General Raoul Cédras, Army Chief of Staff Phillipe Biamby and Chief of...

, which overthrew Haiti's elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...

. The Haitian Presidential candidate Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly is known to have associated with François.

Chief of National Police (1991-94)

He helped topple Haiti's elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...

. He then terrorized his country as chief of the police and secret police under dictator General Raoul Cédras

Raoul Cédras

Raoul Cédras is a former military officer, and was de facto ruler of Haiti from 1991 to 1994.-Background:Cédras was educated in the United States and was a member of the US-trained Leopard Corps...

; some 4,000 Haitians were killed. François fled the country in 1994 to the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. Though convicted in Haiti of assassinating an Aristide supporter, he was never extradited. When the Dominican Republic deported him for plotting another coup d'etat

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 in Haiti, François landed in San Pedro Sula

San Pedro Sula

San Pedro Sula is a city in Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country, in the Valle de Sula , about 60 km south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean. With an estimated population of 638,259 people in the main municipality, and 802,598 in its metro area , it is the second...

, Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

.

He was convicted in absentia for his part in the 1993 murder of Antoine Izméry

Antoine Izméry

Antoine Izméry was a Haïtian businessman and pro-democracy activist.-Career:Izméry, who was of Palestinian descent, was among the wealthiest people in Haïti. He was one of the most prominent backers of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and helped finance his election campaign...

.

Drug charges

A convicted drug dealer told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he met François in Colombia, and that François told him he was arranging a cocaine deal. United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 prosecutors indicted François in March, 1997 and charged him with smuggling 33 tons of cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 and heroin into the U.S. from his private airstrip in Haiti, while taking millions in bribes from Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

n drug lords. François denied the charges and stayed in a Honduran prison until July, 1997, when the Honduran Supreme Court turned down U.S. extradition efforts for lack of evidence and subsequently released François.

External links

• "More from the Exile Files' - The life of ex-despots isn't all jail and frozen assets". from the Haiti Support Group