Haiti is within the grip of a safety disaster as gangs battle for management of territory within the capital and past whereas persevering with to increase their legal actions.
Insecurity has triggered the displacement of a whole lot of 1000’s of Haitians which has added to the humanitarian and financial crises the nation is grappling with.
It’s feared that gangs are more and more working with worldwide organized crime networks to site visitors medicine.
What medicine have been seized and the place?
A document 1,045 kilograms of cocaine was seized in July 2025 close to Haiti’s Île de la Tortue off the north coast of the Caribbean nation in a maritime operation by Haitian authorities. It was the nation’s largest drug bust in over 30 years.
Simply two weeks later, 426 kg of hashish have been confiscated in Petite-Anse, close to Cap-Haïtien once more within the north of the nation.
There have been extra seizures wider afield. Two Haitian nationals have been arrested in Jamaica, additionally in July, with over 1,350 kg of hashish.
The place are the medicine being shipped to?
The cocaine which was seized in July is believed to have originated in South America and was destined, so investigators suppose, for distribution throughout the Caribbean and the US.
There’s additionally latest proof obtained by the UN Workplace on Medication and Crime (UNODC) of medication being shipped to Europe. In August 2025, Belgian authorities seized 1,156 kg of cocaine within the port of Antwerp in a container originating from Haiti.
How are gangs in Haiti concerned?
The most important gangs have entrenched themselves alongside strategic corridors out and in of the capital Port-au-Prince in addition to alongside the border with neighbouring Dominican Republic controlling key transit routes for medicine in addition to different contraband, together with arms.
The management of home routes permits gangs not simply to extort the native inhabitants but additionally to maneuver medicine round with impunity, a lot of it destined for export.
Some gangs are reported to extort tolls from boats and interact in armed theft at sea, exerting some degree of management over commerce and trafficking routes.
Armed gang members stroll by means of a neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince
Intelligence from Jamaica additionally hyperlinks firearms seizures to a guns-for-drugs commerce involving Haitian gangs.
Why has Haiti develop into a transshipment level for medicine?
A lot of the worldwide drug trafficking exercise has been centred round Île de la Tortue which has lengthy been a strategic level for transnational legal operations, partly on account of its appreciable dimension and remoteness.
It was traditionally exploited by pirates and, in latest many years, by organized legal networks concerned in drug trafficking, human smuggling and different illicit actions.
Its geographical place, which offers direct maritime entry to the Bahamas and Jamaica, in addition to the Turks and Caicos Islands, makes it appropriate as a logistics and storage platform for illicit shipments.
Weapons and ammunition are sometimes trafficked into Haiti alongside the identical routes as medicine.
Traffickers have been in a position to exploit Haiti’s struggles to construct a strong justice and penal system which might take care of the growth of legal gangs and the unlawful actions they’re participating in.
What’s the regional influence?
Haiti is quickly turning into a central hub in a multinational trafficking community. The traffickers concerned within the cocaine cargo have been Bahamian and Jamaican nationals, underscoring the presence of regional actors collaborating with Haitian counterparts.
The seizures of medication each in Haitian waters and in Europe point out refined, coordinated and established trafficking routes that require a strong regional response by regulation enforcement businesses.
Newly established drug routes are additionally overlapping with migrant smuggling operations, through which Haitian nationals are more and more concerned.
In the meantime, the drug commerce contributes to regional instability, undermines governance, disrupts economies and fuels violence.
Ports, commerce routes and tourism sectors in affected nations face elevated safety challenges and reputational harm.
How is UNODC supporting Haiti’s efforts to fight drug trafficking?
UNODC is reinforcing border safety, strengthening maritime management, advancing intelligence-led policing and addressing the corruption and monetary crime that enable trafficking networks to function.
The company’s work begins on the borders, the place Haiti stays extremely susceptible to illicit flows.
A nationwide border-management initiative designed to extend interdiction capability at ports, airports and land borders has been launched on the request of the Haitian authorities.
The Haitian Coast Guard repatriates migrants who had fled the nation by means of established trafficking routes.
At sea, UNODC’s World Maritime Crime Programme is concentrated on strengthening the Haitian Coast Guard, which performs a vital function in securing maritime routes which can be closely used for narcotics and human trafficking.
On land, UNODC is strengthening the power of regulation enforcement to hold out intelligence-led operations in opposition to organized legal teams concerned in migrant smuggling, trafficking in individuals and overlapping legal actions. The alternate of data between Haiti and regional companions, which is important for figuring out and dismantling cross-border legal networks, has additionally been stepped up.
Recognizing that drug trafficking is enabled by entrenched corruption and the laundering of legal proceeds, UNODC is implementing authorities initiatives aimed toward strengthening institutional integrity and accountability.
Specialised tribunals are being launched that are able to dealing with circumstances involving monetary crime, cash laundering, gang-related offences and different delicate legal issues, with the target of decreasing impunity and restoring confidence within the justice system.
