MIAMI, USA (AP) – A former senior Haitian police official was acquitted yesterday of charges that he took bribes to help Colombian drug traffickers move tons of cocaine through the island nation during the government of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

A 12-person jury found Evintz Brillant, 33, innocent of the charges after deliberating over parts of two days. Brillant grinned broadly and hugged his lawyer, Howard Schumacher, after the jury’s verdict was read in court.

“I’m ecstatic and he’s extremely happy,” Schumacher said.

Brillant was the only one of four former Haitian police officials whose case went to trial following a lengthy drug-trafficking and bribery investigation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration into the Aristide government.

The other three Haitian officials pleaded guilty and agreed to co-operate with investigators. Aristide, who was forced out under US pressure in February 2004 and is living in exile in South Africa, has not been charged or directly implicated in drug trafficking.

The jury found Brillant, who has been in custody since his arrest in May 2004, not guilty of a single count of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.

“We accept the jury’s verdict,” said Assistant US Attorney David Weinstein.

Brillant, once chief of Haiti’s anti-narcotics unit, was accused of taking thousands of dollars in bribes from Colombian drug lords to permit shipments of tons of cocaine to move through Haiti to the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Many of the shipments were put on US-bound flights at Haiti’s airport in the capital of Port-au-Prince, prosecutors said.

Brillant was described by the other Haitian police officials during the two-week trial as part of a network of corrupt police, politicians and others who took a share of drug money to protect the cocaine traffickers and in some cases actually assist in the smuggling.

But Schumacher raised questions about the credibility of the former officials who were testifying in hopes of gaining a reduced prison sentence or with promises of immunity from prosecution altogether. Two admitted drug traffickers also testified against Brillant, but there was no wiretap or other physical evidence tying him to criminal acts.

“I think the jury had difficulty relying on five government witnesses who had benefited extraordinarily,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher said Brillant was an honest cop who did not take part in the drug-and-bribery scheme.

“Evintz Brillant was and is a police officer,” Schumacher said in closing arguments Thursday. “Evintz Brillant was making arrests. He was making seizures. But what he wasn’t doing was going along with the team plan.”

The other Haitian police officials who previously pleaded guilty are Jean Nesly Lucien, the former national police director; Rudy Therassan, a former police commander; and Romaine Lestin, former police chief at the Port-au-Prince airport. Therassan was sentenced in July to 15 years in prison, while the other two are awaiting sentencing later this year.

Brillant was not immediately released from custody Friday because his immigration status had to be determined. Brillant has family in the Miami area and Schumacher said he could ask for asylum to remain in the United States or he could return to Haiti.