Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT) Copyright: 2004 Daily News, L.P. Contact: http://www.billingsgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515 Author: James Gordon Meek, New York Daily News AMERICAN NARCOTICS AGENT IN HAITI FOUGHT OFF GUNMAN WASHINGTON - DEA agents are eager to hammer Colombian drug thugs in Haiti after an ambush last month in which an American narc single- handedly fought off more than a dozen gunmen, U.S. officials told the New York Daily News. The Drug Enforcement Administration agent, his wife and a female U.S. Embassy official escaped unharmed from the previously undisclosed roadside firefight on Feb. 16, a week into the uprising that toppled ex- President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "The DEA is eager to improve drug enforcement efforts in Haiti," DEA Administrator Karen Tandy told The Daily News. "Although events are still unfolding, we hope to have opportunities to do so in the near future." The harrowing incident is the earliest known violence involving Americans since the rebellion in Haiti began. More than 1,600 Marines are serving as peacekeepers and have gotten into nightly firefights that have led to the deaths of at least six Haitians. Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, echoed top U.S. officials when he alleged last week that Aristide encouraged Haitian police to help Colombian drug smugglers and "sold out the DEA people." "We are going to establish real cooperation with the DEA in all good faith and we'll be their partners," Latortue told The News. Latortue wasn't surprised to hear of the February ambush, which occurred late at night on the road from Canape Vert and the capital, Port-au-Prince. The Americans, traveling in two cars with diplomatic tags, were returning from dinner when they passed through a police checkpoint. Almost immediately, they came under fire from as many as 16 gunmen after slowing down for road debris, sources told The News. The DEA agent returned fire, allowing both cars to escape. "We survived incredible odds in that gun battle and came out unscathed," Tandy said in a speech to new agents who graduated Friday. "I don't know that the other side fared as well." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom