A dramatic series of arrests and releases of top police officials has provoked an unprecedented crisis within the Haitian National Police (PNH), exposing deep hostilities between different factions within the institution.

On Feb. 6, a small plane from Colombia landed on Route 9 Drouillard near the capital's Cité Soleil slum and reportedly offloaded about 1000 kilograms of cocaine. According to police Inspector General Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste, officers of Haiti's Anti-Drug Trafficking Brigade (BLTS) sealed off the stretch of highway to allow the bold drug delivery, a mere three miles north of downtown Port-au-Prince. On Feb. 14, BLTS head Evans Brilliant and five other policemen were arrested and put in isolation at the police headquarters in Croix-des-Bouquets.

Jean-Baptiste also ordered the Feb. 14 arrest of three close advisors of Police Chief Jean Nesly Lucien. Lochard Jean René, Jean-Louis Léandre and Georges Déré - known in the PNH as the "Three Musketeers" - were taken into custody along with Dr. Rothchild Bruno, who oversees the PNH medical clinic, at Lucien's home in Tabarre. The four were transferred to the Cafétéria police station's Rue Pavée outpost in the heart of the capital.

But the next day, a furious Lucien arrived at the station and ordered the four police officials to be freed. Two days later, the "Three Musketeers," who are civilians, flew to Miami where they stayed two days. They then returned to the capital and their posts on Feb. 19. Bruno also may have tried to leave the country, according to some reports.

Lucien said that Inspector General Jean-Baptiste had acted "illegally" and without his consent in arresting members of his personal cabinet. During a meeting with the Chamber of Deputies' Commission on Police and Security on Feb. 19, Lucien denied that his advisors' trip to the U.S. had any connection to their arrest for the Feb. 6 drug drop. According to him, the counselors had left the country for reasons of personal safety after rumors circulated that they were part of a planned coup d'état against President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

On their return, the three advisors sharply condemned the actions of Inspector General Jean-Baptiste who, according to them, is trying to undermine Lucien and Aristide. They have all declared themselves willing to cooperate with any investigation into the Feb. 6 drug operation, with which the deny any involvement.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 13, over 30 masked officers of the PNH's Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) arrested at Top Tires in Pétionville two alleged drug traffickers, Hector Keitan and Hermane Charles. Under circumstances which are not yet clear, the two men were then shot to death later at the home of Keitan's girlfriend in Péguy-ville while in police custody. According to the woman, there was a fierce argument preceding the death of the two men.

Radio Kiskeya reported that Keitan was a powerful drug trafficker who was present at the Feb. 6 drug drop and was paying off many officials. "It was the police inspector general who gave the order to arrest Keitan," the radio reported, saying that the alleged trafficker was riddled with 19 bullets.

PNH chief Lucien denied all responsibility in the shooting. "I did not authorize this operation," he said. "I am awaiting the report of the Central Direction of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) which is in charge of the brigade that undertook the operation."

However, the head of the DCPJ, Jeannot François, has disappeared since Feb. 21. According to police sources, François was supposed to take part in the Feb. 21 meeting at the National Palace between Aristide and the Police high command, but reportedly had already left the country heading for Puerto Rico via the Dominican Republic. Other police sources say that he has sought refuge in an unidentified embassy in Port-au-Prince.

Jeannot's wife, Marie André François, said that her husband has been missing since the evening of Feb. 20, when he returned home furious after a meeting with Inspector General Jean-Baptiste, who, she implied, was pressuring her husband about his report on the Keitan/Charles killings.

"Is there in fact a conflict between Police General Director Jean Nesly Lucien, a former professor of mathematics, literature, English, and Spanish, and Inspector General Victor Harvelt Jean-Baptiste, a former diplomat posted in Switzerland, Brazil, and Canada?" asked Radio Kiskeya.

"There is no problem within the police command," Lucien asserted on Feb. 19. "The command still remains unified, but I defend a question of principle in the way things are done." He noted that there are only 5,000 police for a population of 8 million spread over 24 thousand square kilometers. "So I commend the police and I commend the Haitian people, who I think are a very civilized," he said.

U.S. authorities lowered their dubious estimates that only 8% of the illegal drugs reaching the U.S. mainland transited Haiti last year, down from 15% the year before. Nonetheless, Washington did not "certify" Haiti as "cooperative" enough in fighting drug trafficking over the past year.

President Aristide condemned the U.S. State Department's January report, noting that the U.S. with its sophisticated boats, planes, and radar seems curiously unable to stem the drug flow. "The U.S. Coast Guard patrolling our waters sees boat people, but they never see boats transporting drugs," he said.