Sibylle Joseph is now 47 and relocated to Virginia. Her two children are now in their 20s and remain in South Florida, Joseph says. François hid in Honduras for years but was eventually sent to prison in Haiti. Aristide, who has always denied his involvement in the drug trade, returned to Haiti in 2011 after a seven-year exile in Africa. The politician remains a popular figure in the country.

In 2000, Joseph started a successful beauty-product company called Prince­reigns. Today, his corner office in Boca Raton is covered with grip-and-grin photos of the company founder with an array of big names — Russell Simmons, Jay Z, even Barack Obama. Outside of photos of his wife and four kids, there aren't many family artifacts. The past remains a difficult subject.

Joseph says he's unhappy about Ke­tant's release but resigned to the realpolitik of the drug war. "[U.S. attorneys] probably feel they owe him something: You scratched my back, and now it's my turn to reciprocate," he says. "What they have to realize is these people are the cretins of the world; they're bottom feeders. You really owe them much of nothing."

Yet Ketant's release — and the end of his usefulness to U.S. prosecutors — may have given Miami-Dade detectives the opening they've been waiting for. Within the past six months, investigators have interviewed Ketant regarding the murder.

"There was a tremendous amount of dynamics going on with Ketant and the State Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office," Wilcox says. "[But] now the case is pretty active. We are confident we're moving in the right direction."

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-haitian-drug-lord-jacques-ketant-7001667