(2023-03) Haiti's Criminal Markets: Mapping Trends in Firearms and Drug Trafficking
Summary — This UNODC assessment maps the scope, routes and dynamics of firearms and drug trafficking in Haiti, based on published and unpublished sources and 45 remote interviews conducted in late 2022. It finds that increasingly sophisticated, high-calibre weapons sourced mainly from the United States are flowing to gangs through porous ports and borders, while Haiti remains a trans-shipment point for Colombian cocaine and Jamaican cannabis, overwhelming under-resourced police, customs and coast guard capacities.
Key Findings
- Increasingly sophisticated and high-calibre firearms and ammunition, including .50 calibre sniper rifles and belt-fed machine guns, are being trafficked into Haiti, with most weapons sourced in the United States and moved through intermediaries via public and private ports.
- Estimates suggest as many as 500,000 small arms in circulation against roughly 38,000 legally registered in 2015; handguns selling for 400-500 dollars in the US can resell for up to 10,000 dollars in Haiti.
- Haiti remains a trans-shipment country for drugs, mainly Colombian cocaine and Jamaican cannabis, entering by boat or plane through ports and clandestine runways and moving on to the Dominican Republic, the US and Western Europe.
- Porous borders (1,771 km of coastline, 392 km land border) overwhelm under-staffed and under-resourced police, customs, border patrol and coast guard capacities, which gangs increasingly target.
- Virtually every insecurity metric trended upward: homicides rose from 1,141 in 2019 to 2,183 in 2022 and kidnappings from 78 to 1,359, while an estimated 150-200 gangs are enmeshed in elite patronage networks.
Full Description
Prepared by UNODC's Research and Trend Analysis Branch and drafted between 20 November and 31 December 2022, this assessment analyses the sources, routes, vectors and destinations of firearms and drug trafficking in Haiti amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation. It draws on published and unpublished information and 45 remote interviews with Haitian government representatives, bilateral and multilateral agencies, experts and civil society. The report situates trafficking in a criminal context of 150 to 200 gangs enmeshed in elite patronage networks, with homicides rising from 1,141 in 2019 to 2,183 in 2022 and kidnappings from 78 to 1,359 over the same period. It documents essentially porous borders (1,771 km of coastline and a 392 km land border with the Dominican Republic), trafficking infrastructure spanning public, private and informal ports, roads and clandestine airstrips, and firearms flows dominated by weapons purchased in the United States, notably Florida, and moved through intermediaries; a 2020 national commission estimate put small arms in circulation as high as 500,000, against roughly 38,000 legally registered in 2015, and handguns retailing for 400 to 500 dollars in the US can resell for up to 10,000 dollars in Haiti. Increasingly high-calibre equipment, including .50 calibre sniper rifles and belt-fed machine guns, has been seized. On drugs, Haiti remains a trans-shipment country for Colombian cocaine and Jamaican cannabis moving onward to the Dominican Republic, the United States and Western Europe. The report reviews international, regional and national responses, including the UN sanctions regime, and calls for comprehensive approaches spanning border management, community policing, criminal justice reform and anti-corruption.
Notes
new: firearms/drugs market mapping 2023; corpus holds only SC quarterlies