They control the country’s infrastructure, from police stations to ports. They drove hundreds of thousands of people out of the capital. And they are suspected of being linked to the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president.
Western diplomats and officials say the influence and capabilities of many Haitian gangs are evolving, posing a further threat to the Kenya-led multinational police force that will soon be deployed in Haiti and to the fragile transitional council seeking to set an electoral path.
Security experts say that with their arrival just days away, the 2,500 police officers will be better equipped, funded and trained than any mission previously deployed to the Caribbean country and will face integrated gangs.
Some gangs that once depended primarily on Haiti’s political and business elite for funding have found independent financial lifelines since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and the subsequent collapse of the country.
“The gangs were making money through kidnappings, extortion and taking bribes from politicians and business elites during elections,” said William O’Neill, a UN-appointed expert on human rights in Haiti.
“But the gangs are now much more autonomous and do not need the financial support of seasoned guards,” he added. “They have created a Frankenstein that no one can control.”
Supporting gangs is a more powerful weapon than anything they’ve ever possessed before, according to two Justice Department officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence assessments. Since February, some gangs have acquired automatic weapons. It was likely a mix of weapons stolen from local military units and weapons converted into semi-automatic rifles, officials said.
The gang has also changed its public posture, posting on social media that it is less interested in its usual turf wars, has national ambitions and is acting more like a militia.
Some of Haiti’s gangs began collaborating last September, announcing an alliance called the Vivre Ensemble, or Living Together, just days after the Dominican Republic closed its border with Haiti.
The idea was to unite the gangs to overcome border closures hampering drug smuggling operations, according to two Western diplomats in charge of Haiti who were not authorized to speak publicly.
But the alliance collapsed about a week after it was announced, with about two tons of cocaine stolen from Haitian gang leader Johnson André, also known as Izo, diplomats said.
Izo’s 5 Segonn gang (“Five Seconds” in Creole) is believed to be the country’s largest cocaine trafficker, sending much of its product directly to Europe, according to diplomats.
At the end of February, the Vivre ensemble was revived. The gang has publicly pledged to overthrow Kenya’s prime minister and has vowed to resist Kenya-led security forces if they are deployed, calling the troops ‘invaders’.
A few days later, the allies stormed two prisons and freed about 4,600 prisoners, many of whom also joined. The chaos led Haiti’s overseas prime minister to resign.
Among the defectors was Dimitri Erard, the head of the security department that protected Moïse’s presidential palace before his assassination, according to Haitian officials. Mr. Hérard ordered his troops to fall back after mercenaries stormed Mr. Moïse’s house. He was awaiting trial in prison on charges related to the assassination when he was released during a prison escape.
According to a senior local intelligence official and two Western diplomats, Mr. Erard is currently helping organize and advise Izo’s gangs and may provide links to larger criminal organizations in the region, including drug cartels.
Mr Hérard could not be reached for comment.
Haitian gangs appear to be using weapons used by the Gulf Clan, a Colombian cartel. Colombian cartels operate along the Caribbean coastline and use 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 may have ended up in Haiti.
Another powerful gang leader, Vitel’homme Innocent, has also been linked by authorities to Mr. Moïse’s murder. He rented one of the cars used to kill Mr. Moïse, according to a Haitian police report.
Mr. Hérard was also the main 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 kg of cocaine and heroin hidden among sacks of sugar.
At the time, Michel Martelly was President of Haiti and Mr. Erard was a senior member of the Presidential Guard. Mr. Hérard was seen by several witnesses at the port ordering the President’s bodyguards to transport the drugs from the ship to a police vehicle.
In this case, most of the drugs were gone. Witnesses were threatened by Haitian government officials, including police officer Jimmy Chérizier, according to Keith McNichols, a former Drug Enforcement Administration officer who investigated the case.
Mr. Chérizier, also known as Barbecue, is currently one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders and a key member of the Vivre Ensemble coalition.
“Gangs are increasingly involved in drug trafficking,” said Mr O’Neill, of the UN. “And given that some former police officers, such as Hérard, were involved in drug dealing when Martelly came to power, it is not surprising that the gang is now trying to woo those former security officials.”
Officials with knowledge of recent negotiations to name Haiti’s new prime minister said Prime Minister Martelly had been lobbying Caribbean leaders and his political allies to influence the formation of an interim government.
His allies in the transitional council have quietly floated a proposal that gangs should be granted immunity as part of a broader immunity for former government officials who could be accused of corruption, officials said.
Prime Minister Martelly said in a statement to the New York Times, “I categorically deny the groundless allegations of interference in the transitional council,” adding, “These accusations are politically motivated.” “I have never had any affiliation with a gang and have never mentioned a pardon to anyone.”
Martelly’s government, who served as president from 2011 to 2016, has been accused of rampant corruption, including misappropriating about $2 billion worth of aid from Venezuela. In 2022, Canada imposed sanctions on him and other Haitian politicians on charges of protecting and empowering local gangs, “including money laundering and other corrupt practices.”
“If Haitians are not consulted, an amnesty could further fan the flames,” said Romain Le Cour, a Haiti security analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. “This is a crisis situation, given that the gangs have committed serious human rights violations.”
Reporting Provider: Christian Tribert, Second Pole Tree, John Ismay, Adam Entus, Julian E. Barnes and David C. Adams.
