U.S. Drops Gun-Running Charges
As written in the Miami Herald
Acquitted
A gun-running complaint against a Haitian was dropped by federal authorities here Wednesday at the request of the U.S. State Department.
Dr. Carlos Mevs, the Haitian, had been picked up by customs officials in Fort Lauderdale Sept. 21 at the international airport as some $100,000 worth of guns and ammunition were being loaded aboard a twin-engine plane.
The incident followed by one week a warning issued by the State Department that it was illegal to buy arms in the U. S. and ship them to Haiti.
Edwin Marger, Miami Beach attorney for Dr. Mevs, said Wednesday the government declined to prosecute "because they did not have a case."
The U. S. attorney here, William Meadows, said his office had conferred with the State Department and then had recommended to U. S. Commissioner Roger E. Davis that the complaint against Dr. Mevs be dismissed.
It was understood that Dr. Mevs would be returning to Haiti shortly. Marger said he was in New York Wednesday.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the move was in response to the overtures from the government of Haiti. It said that Haiti pointed out Dr. Mevs was an "illustrious" citizen, with a diplomatic passport, that it was concerned about his welfare and did not endorse his individual activities.
The government of the Haitian dictator, President Francois Duvalier, has been concerned recently about anti-government guerrilla activity on its southern peninsula. Two guerrilla bands have been reported operating there.
Because Haiti's military equipment and supplies are reported to be inadequate for a sustained campaign against guerrillas, the government has been pressing its case in this hemisphere and Europe to buy additional guns, ammunition and planes.
The U. S. government had banned the export of arms to Haiti, but expressed concern recently that planes or arms were being smuggled there.
Another Haitian, the Rev. Jean Baptiste Georges, was arrested in Miami Beach in September after police seized a trailer loaded with guns and military equipment. Father Georges waived hearing before the U. S. commissioner and now is free on a cash bond of $1,000 pending grand jury investigation. His ties were reported to be with anti-Duvalier forces.
