Haiti has lengthy been a trans-shipment hub to maneuver cocaine, hashish and to a lesser extent heroin and amphetamines to the United States and the Dominican Republic, says UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
(AP Archive)
Increasingly subtle weapons are being trafficked into Haiti primarily from the United States and particularly from Florida amid worsening lawlessness within the impoverished Caribbean nation, based on a UN report.
The report, launched on Friday, by the Vienna-based Office on Drugs and Crime stated a community of prison actors together with members of the Haitian diaspora “often source firearms from across the US” and smuggle them into Haiti illegally by land from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, by air together with to clandestine airstrips, however most continuously by sea.
“Popular handguns selling for $400-$500 at federally licensed firearms outlets or private gun shows in the US can be resold for as much as $10,000 in Haiti,” the report stated. “Higher-powered rifles such as AK47s, AR15s and Galils are typically in higher demand from gangs, commanding correspondingly higher prices.”
The US Department of Homeland Security’s investigations unit reported “a surge in firearms trafficking from Florida to Haiti between 2021 and 2022” and a spokesman described the restoration of more and more subtle weapons destined for Haitian ports “including .50 caliber sniper rifles, .308 rifles, and even belt-fed machine guns,” based on the report.
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“Weapons are frequently procured through straw man purchases in US states with looser gun laws and fewer purchasing restrictions” after which transported to Florida the place they’re hid inside client merchandise, digital tools, garment linings, frozen meals objects and even the hull of freighters, it stated. “On arrival in Haiti, including major hubs such as Port-de-Paix and Port-au-Prince, cargo is offloaded and passed on to end-users via a host of intermediaries.”
‘Increasingly focused by gangs’
The 47-page report, entitled “Haiti’s Criminal Markets: Mapping Trends in Firearms and Drug Trafficking,” cites the challenges of patrolling 1,771 kilometres (1,100 miles) of Haiti’s shoreline and a 392-kilometre (243-mile) border with the Dominican Republic with nationwide police, border and coast guard operations which might be severely under-staffed, under-resourced and “increasingly targeted by gangs.”
The heavily-armed gangs are additionally focusing on ports, highways, crucial infrastructure, customs workplaces, police stations, court docket homes, prisons, companies and neighbourhoods, the report stated.
And all through 2022 and early 2023 they’ve expanded their management over key entry factors to cities together with the capital Port-au-Prince.
“Many are also engaged in predatory behaviour in communities under their control contributing to rising levels of extortion, sexual violence, kidnapping and fatal violence,” it stated, citing a rise in homicides from 1,615 in 2021 to 2,183 in 2022, and a doubling of kidnappings from 664 to 1,359 throughout the identical interval.
The UN report stated personal safety corporations in Haiti are permitted to purchase and preserve arms, and whereas unbiased verification isn’t doable “specialists speculate that there could be 75,000 to 90,000 individuals working with roughly 100 private security companies across the country, at least five times the number of registered police officers.”
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Haiti has lengthy been a trans-shipment hub to maneuver cocaine, hashish and to a lesser extent heroin and amphetamines to the United States and the Dominican Republic.
The medicine largely enter the nation by way of boat or airplane, arriving via public, personal and casual ports in addition to clandestine runways.
During the 2000s, the report stated, drug traffickers moved unlawful airstrips from the outskirts of Port-au-Prince northward to extra remoted areas together with Savane Diane, roughly 50 miles north of the capital.
When then-President Jovenal Moïse ordered the destruction of suspected clandestine airstrips in June 2021, UNODC stated “local authorities refused.” Every week later, he was assassinated.
Since the assassination, UN officers stated gangs have grown extra highly effective, and gang violence has reached a degree not seen in a long time.
In December, the UN estimated that gangs managed 60 p.c of Haiti’s capital, however most individuals on the streets in Port-au-Prince say that quantity is nearer to 100%.
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Source: AP
Source: www.trtworld.com
