TORONTO, (AFP) - Canada has deported former Haitian security chief, Oriel Jean, to the United States, where he is wanted on alleged drug trafficking charges, his lawyer and a government official said yesterday.

Jean was detained at Toronto's airport last week and arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police on a US warrant during an immigration hearing in the city on Monday.

"He dropped his opposition to the extradition procedures and was sent to the United States," said Ministry of Justice spokesman Patrick Charette, in Ottawa.

Jean's Toronto lawyer, Guidy Mamman, confirmed to AFP that Jean had been sent to the United States, but declined to comment further.

US authorities in Miami were expected to take on Jean's case.

Jean was a close aide to Haitian leader Jean Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted on February 29. Jean was detained last week after stepping off a plane from the Dominican Republic en route to Montreal.

Mamman said on Monday that his client had once been asked by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to provide details on known drug traffickers.

He was warned he could be arrested and sent the United States to face charges if he refused, Mamman said.
The US arrest warrant issued this week charged Jean with conspiracy and trafficking in cocaine.

Charges that Jean may have been involved in crimes against humanity were also raised in the immigration hearing, but Mamman argued that Jean, born in 1965, had merely served as a bodyguard for Aristide and so could not be responsible for any crimes against humanity committed by the ousted leader's security forces.

However, the Canadian government said Jean's position as security chief made it impossible for him to plead ignorance about alleged crimes against humanity committed by his subordinates.

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