PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- As right-hand man to the country's former dictator, Romeo Halloun had it all.
In a country where peasants pray for a seat on the bus or for a few eggs from their chickens, he had money, guns and influence.
Mr. Halloun moved about the island as if it were his personal fief.
During the heyday of Lt. Col. Raul Cedras, United Nations officials here say, Mr. Halloun commanded groups of heavily armed thugs and participated in the illegal import of every kind of product.
He had studied in the United States, held U.S. citizenship and spoke several languages well.
But he failed to learn the lesson that could have saved him from the prospect of a lengthy prison term -- the lesson that nothing lasts forever.
"Romeo was very naive," said Alice Blanchet, a childhood friend who failed to persuade him to abandon his wild ways.
"I kept telling him you cannot fight the international community."
"I told him the army would have to go."
U.S. troops arrested Mr. Halloun in October at the tomato paste factory that is owned by wealthy mulatto families, including his own.
He has been languishing ever since in a makeshift prison run by U.S. soldiers.
To end the country's lawlessness, the soldiers have been rounding up the police auxiliaries who sought to prevent the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from exile.
Part of their task has been to prevent angry mobs of Haitians from taking revenge.
Soldiers have hidden Colonel Cedras' associates in trucks, even rolled them into rugs, to smuggle them away from the mobs and into the prisons -- a practice that offended Mr. Halloun's lawyer.
"What I learned at school is that to detain someone you need evidence," said Patrick Woolley, the lawyer.
"I don't see evidence."
But Mr. Halloun was not known for discretion. He was a familiar figure outside Colonel Cedras' office and on his balcony, and was often seen with weapons.
On one occasion, according to a U.N. official who has gathered evidence against Mr. Halloun, he directed a gang that stole weapons and communications gear from a U.N. vehicle that was stopped at the gang's roadblock.
All that U.S. officials will say about Mr. Halloun is that his U.S. citizenship may mean he eventually will be turned over to U.S. prosecutors and U.S. courts.