Haiti does not make guns. How do the gangs close to them?

A video clip that was widely distributed on the Internet recently showed the leader of the Haiti gang, Joseph Wilson, without a shirt, which is happy with 0.50 caliber ammunition, saying he sarcastically that he used bullets for shields to prepare his hair.

He jokingly said: “We have enough combs of our hair until it lasts in a year.”

How did you get them?

Weapons are not manufactured in Haiti, and it is illegal to charge anything there, but the gangs occupy the capital of the country, Port or Prince, it does not seem to be less-or ammunition.

Experts appreciate There are about 20 armed groups operating in Port or Prince, some who carry the AR-15 and Galil Assault rifles, guns and GLOCK pistols. The United Nations estimates that between 270,000 and 500,000 firearms are illegal in Haiti, with most weapons in the hands of gangs.

Their superior power was overwhelmed by the unpopular Haiti police and contributed to amazing death last year for more than 5,600 victims of killing, a leap that exceeds 1000 of the previous year.

The United Nations imposed a ban on weapons on Haiti three years ago, however most of the weapons in the streets of Haiti are from the United States, where they are purchased by the straw buyers and are smuggled into the country by sea or sometimes by Earth through the Dominican Republic, according to the United Nations.

The issue has become so dangerous that the Haiti government may restrict imports along its wild borders with the Dominican Republic. Only the goods that were originally produced there are allowed; Any products that do not arise in the doctor must enter through the maritime ports that cause misdemeanors in Haiti.

While the capital is wrestling in Haiti with a violent crisis that threatens its existence in particular, the questions remain about whether Haiti and other countries – including the United States – are doing enough to control the extension of weapons.

“If you stop the flow of weapons and bullets, the gangs are ultimately, literally, running out of ammunition,” said Bill O’Neill, a human rights expert in the United Nations in Haiti. “This is a faster, faster and safer way to dismantle them.”

Where do weapons come from?

In short, Florida.

South Florida, including Miami and Fort Lauderdel’s ports, was the point of origin for 90 percent of illegal firearms shipments in the Caribbean reported between 2016 and 2023, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Gangs sometimes get weapons and ammunition by attacking the police stations in Haiti or by bribing the local police to provide weapons. The United Nations said this week, nearly 1,000 police rifles have been transferred in the past four years, and police officers have been reported to be sold on the black market.

But weapons are usually smuggled into shipping containers and left transport companies on board south of Florida, hidden between bicycle, cars, electrical commodities, clothes and food.

UN officials and private security experts say that the travelers have changed their tactics in recent months to avoid increasing inspections on the Miami River, a five -miles waterway that reduces the city of Miami, and has long been a hotbed of smuggling.

The United Nations said in a recent report that the smugglers have expanded their operations into new roads between Florida and the Dominican Republic, including Port Evergels in Fort Lauderdale, a large tourist ship and a shipping attachment.

What weapons are smuggled?

So far this year, Dominican officials have made large seizures of smuggled firearms in Heina Port, near the capital, Santo Domingo.

In February, Dominican customs agents did what they described as the largest attack in the country for Hitty’s weapons.

Nearly twenty firearms, including a semi-automatic rifle of Barrett. 50 and 15 AK-47 offensive rifles, as well as 36,000 rounds inside a container on Sarah Express, a 35-year-old cargo ship that runs a regular road between Miami and the Dominican Republic.

The owner of the Miami company listed on the shipping bill in the Dominican Republic was arrested.

Investigators said the second shipment of New York seized in January in the same dominican port may be committed to Hitty. That shipment included 37 rifles, several Kalashnikov rifles with stickers that were found to be manufactured in Vermont and Georgia.

In November, the Dominican authorities arrested several Dominican police officers accused of smuggling nearly one million rounds of ammunition from the police warehouse. Dominican court records appear at least from Haiti buyers.

Did the application of the law achieve any success?

In response to September message Among many members of Congress who asked for more work to treat weapons that blow to Haiti, the US Department of Commerce, which organizes firearms exports, said in December that no 11 -year -old foreign export control officers in the Caribbean region were deployed due to the lack of money.

However, the agency said that during the Biden administration, nine Haiti investigations resulted in condemnation.

Recently, other federal law enforcement agencies have followed many Haiti weapons cases.

Last month, a 31 -year -old police officer in St. Claude, Florida, admitted that he was guilty of buying and reselling at least 58 firearms as part of a plan that sent hundreds of weapons to the Dominican, Portorico and Haiti.

In January, an immigrant of no more than 34 years of Guatemala, Ricardo Sun Jeron, admitted that he was guilty of firearms trafficking in Tampa. According to the guilty acknowledgment agreement, Mr. Sune-Girón employed the straw buyer to buy 900 firearms illegally-including offensive rifles-then transferred from Florida to the Dominican and Haiti Republic.

A former security officer of the Haiti police chief in Florida was arrested in December after investigators linked him to about 90 firearms.

How does the application of the law deal with the problem?

Haiti has a few resources such as scanners and border guards to address the problem of smuggled firearms on its borders and ports, while experts say that the United States has a limited ability to search for goods exported in local ports and usually performs random shipping inspections.

Ships that sail to Haiti from the United States are often sprayed with various charges, from used clothes to home appliances, bikes and cars, making it easy to hide the smuggler.

In one case, the broken rifles on a cargo ship on the Miami River, heading to Haiti, were hidden in shipments that included tennis, fruit juice, rice and clothes.

“We have appeared without warning,” said Anthony Hernandez, border protection and border protection deputy in the federal trial in Miami in January from a smuggler accused of a smuggler from a defendant. “We are doing our best to reach as much as possible.”

Haiti’s law enforcement authorities did not respond to the repeated requests for comment.

What about the Dominican Republic?

In the Dominican Republic, the United States supports a special unit of 30 local customs agencies, where 20 others were currently examined to work in cases related to the United States.

The Dominican Foreign Ministry said that the authorities tightened the controls, including adding eight new X -ray lights in the main ports, where all the goods directed to Haiti are examined.

Dominican customs officials are tracing all suspicious shipments to arrest and emulate the travelers, a representative of the American embassy who has not been allowed to speak publicly, and they wonder whether the Dominican Republic is an important source of illegal rifles for Hyty.

Dominican customs authorities referred questions to the prosecutors who refused to comment.

So what can be done to stop it?

Critics say that not doing enough to regulate the sale of weapons in the United States for straw buyers, an illegal practice in which people buy weapons on behalf of another person, including the travelers. This practice is responsible for a large number of weapons that end in crimes in Mexico and all over Latin America.

Experts say merchants often ignore purchasing patterns that can be easily discovered by arms dealers who pretend to be legal agents and buy multiple weapons repeatedly.

“This is where you can stop,” said Jonathan Louie, the founder of global action on armed violence. “It is very difficult to stop as soon as the guns are in the hands of the trader. They can be broken and placed in a cage of breakfast or fruit juices.”