They control the country’s infrastructure, from police stations to seaports. They have driven hundreds of thousands of people out of the capital. They are suspected of being linked to the 2021 assassination of the Haitian president.
Western diplomats and officials say the influence and capabilities of many Haitian gangs are evolving, making them a growing threat to Kenyan-led multinational police forces about to be deployed to Haiti and to a fragile transitional council trying to clear the way for elections. threaten.
With just days to go before arriving, the 2,500 police will face a gang force that is better equipped, funded, trained and unified than any previous mission deployed to the Caribbean country, security experts say.
Some gangs that once relied heavily on Haiti’s political and business elite for funding have found an independent financial lifeline since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the ensuing collapse of the country.
“These gangs have been making money through kidnapping and extortion, as well as bribery of politicians and business elites during elections,” said William O’Neill, a U.N.-appointed human rights expert on Haiti.
“But these gangs are now more autonomous and don’t need old-school financial support,” he added. “They created a Frankenstein that was beyond anyone’s control.”
Two Justice Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence assessments, said the arsenal helping criminal gangs is more powerful than anything they have had before. Since February, some gangs have acquired automatic weapons — either stolen from regional armies or converted from semi-automatic rifles, officials said.
The gangs have also changed their public posture, posting videos of themselves on social media in which they act like militias with national ambitions and less concern for their usual turf wars.
Last September, just days after the Dominican Republic closed its land border with Haiti, a group of Haitian gangs began cooperating, announcing the formation of an alliance called “Vivre Ensemble,” or “Together Life.”
Two Western diplomats focused on Haiti said the idea was to unite the gangs and overcome the obstacles posed by border closures to their drug-smuggling operations.
But diplomats said the alliance collapsed about a week after it was announced, after about two tons of cocaine were stolen from Haitian gang leader Johnson Andre, also known as Izzo.
Izzo’s 5 Segonn gang (“Five Seconds” in Creole) is considered the country’s largest cocaine trafficker, with much of its product shipped directly to Europe, according to diplomats.
In late February, Vivre Ensemble was resurrected. The gangs have publicly vowed to overthrow the country’s prime minister and vowed to resist once Kenyan-led security forces are deployed, calling the forces “invaders”.
Days later, the coalition raided two prisons and freed some 4,600 prisoners, many of whom joined them. The chaos forced Haiti’s prime minister, who was abroad, to resign.
Haitian officials said the fugitives included Dimitri Hérard, the head of security who protected the presidential palace before Moïse was assassinated. When mercenaries attacked Moïse’s home, Elard ordered his troops to retreat. When he escaped and was released, he was in jail awaiting trial on charges related to the assassination.
According to a senior regional intelligence official and two Western diplomats, Herard is now helping organize and advise Izzo’s gang and may provide links to larger criminal organizations in the region, including drug cartels.
Mr. Eral could not be reached for comment.
Haitian criminal groups appear to have used weapons used by the Gulf Cartel, a Colombian drug cartel that operates along the country’s Caribbean coastline and uses neighboring countries to traffic cocaine. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said last month that thousands of military weapons had been stolen and sold to armed groups such as cartels and could be destined for Haiti.
Authorities have also linked another powerful gang leader, Vitel’homme Innocent, to Moïse’s murder. He rented a car used in the killing of Moïse, according to a Haitian police report.
Mr. Ellard is also the prime suspect in one of the largest cases pursued by the Drug Enforcement Administration in Haiti. In 2015, the MV Manzanares cargo ship docked in Port-au-Prince with more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine and heroin hidden in sugar bags.
At the time, Michel Martelly was Haiti’s president and Mr. Hérard was a senior member of Haiti’s presidential security forces. Multiple witnesses saw Hérard ordering members of the Presidential Guard to transport drugs from the ship to police cars at the port.
Most of the drugs in the case were gone. Keith McNichols, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who worked on the case, said witnesses were intimidated by Haitian government officials, including police officer Jimmy Chérizier.
Mr. Chérizier, also known as Barbecue, is now one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders and a key member of the Vivre Ensemble alliance.
“These gangs are increasingly linked to drug trafficking,” said the United Nations’ Mr. O’Neill. “Given that some former police officers like Herard were involved in the drug trade when Martelly came to power, I wouldn’t be surprised if these gangs now try to court these former security officials.”
More recently, officials familiar with negotiations over the appointment of Haiti’s new prime minister said Martelly has been lobbying Caribbean leaders and his political allies in an attempt to influence the composition of the interim government.
His allies on the transition council have quietly floated a suggestion that the gangs should be granted immunity, officials said, possibly as part of broader immunity for former government officials who may be accused of corruption.
“I categorically deny these baseless accusations of active interference with the transitional council,” Martelli said in a statement to The New York Times, calling the accusations politically motivated. “I have never had anything to do with gangs or any mention of amnesty for anyone.”
Martelly’s government, president from 2011 to 2016, was accused of rampant corruption, including the misappropriation of approximately $2 billion worth of Venezuelan aid. In 2022, Canada imposed sanctions on him and other Haitian politicians for protecting and supporting local gangs “including through money laundering and other corrupt practices.”
“If the Haitian people are not consulted, the idea of an amnesty could add fuel to the fire because politicians are unable to unite at this moment,” said Romain LeCour, a Haiti security analyst at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. These gangs have committed serious human rights violations and a crisis has occurred.
Report contributors: Christian Tribert, The second Paul tree, John Ismay, Adam Entus, Julian E.Barnes and David C. Adams.
