News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2005

Jury Convicts Haitian Cocaine Trafficker on All Counts

Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Miami Field Division, R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Brian J. Wimpling, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Michael S. Clemens, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Jesus Torres, Special Agent in Charge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced that defendant Serge Edouard was convicted by a jury of conspiring to import more than 5 kilograms of cocaine into the United States, conspiring to commit money laundering, and nine individual counts of money laundering.

Edouard faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. He also faces the potential forfeiture of over $15 million in assets. Over $5 million in assets have already been seized. Edouard’s sentencing is set for September 29, 2005. According to the evidence presented at trial, from 1998 until 2004, Edouard was the head of a large-scale cocaine smuggling organization that imported thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Haiti into Miami and New York. This smuggling organization returned millions of dollars in drug proceeds from the United States back to Edouard in Haiti. Edouard then laundered those drug proceeds in a variety of ways, including paying corrupt high-ranking Haitian officials to protect his drug activities.