Dozens of 5 Segonn members dance in a video clip.
In recent years, one of Haiti’s most powerful and well-armed gangs, 5 Segonn, has promoted itself with brash rap videos on social media.
Dozens of 5 Segonn members dance in a video clip.
But videos and photos recently posted by the gang to TikTok show a shift: They are trying to present themselves as an organized security force.
Several 5 Segonn members wear tactical gear and ride in the back of a truck.
The gang members are now uniformed and wield more powerful weapons.
Dozens of five Segonn members gathered in a room.
One of these weapons is the Belgian-designed FN FAL rifle.
Members of the 5 Segonn gang with FN Fal rifles.
It is usually worn by military personnel and has not previously been used by the 5 Segonn gang.
Members of the 5 Segonn gang with FN Fal rifles, with one of the rifles marked.
The group now appears to be in a better position as a Kenyan-led multinational police force is set to arrive in Haiti.
A group of five Segonn gang members dressed in tactical gear.
Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, the security situation in Haiti has deteriorated and gangs have stepped in to fill the void. They now control or exert their influence in most of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The recent transformation of 5 Segonn coincided with the unification of several rival gangs in late February. Days later, Allied groups orchestrated a mass prison break, plunging the country into further chaos and prompting Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the country’s de facto ruler, to resign.
Together, the gangs have taken over key roads crisscrossing Haiti and into the neighboring Dominican Republic, and have occupied several strategic police stations, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Sources: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Human Rights Watch; MakyavelStudios via X; the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Integrated Office in Haiti.
Please note: these are estimates and the situation is subject to change. Areas of control change frequently and gangs may operate outside their main area.
The Kenyan-led deployment, aided by U.S. supplies and financing, could face a much more volatile situation than previous U.N. international peacekeeping missions. Earlier this month, the leader of 5 Segonn took to social media to taunt and threaten the incoming security force, which will be based at the capital’s airport.
The U.S. is investigating whether European and American weapons made exclusively for militaries and sold in Latin America are being smuggled to five Segonn and other Haitian gangs, according to two senior Justice Department officials who were not authorized to speak publicly .
5 Segonn’s promotion of his new image began with the creation of a TikTok account shortly after the rival gangs united. Posts show the gang’s military appearance and weapons.
Although the account was suspended after just eleven posts, The Times has archived and analyzed its contents, along with hundreds of media files posted by gang members, to track how 5 Segonn’s capabilities have evolved.
5 Segonn’s name is Creole for five seconds. They are believed to be among Haiti’s largest cocaine traffickers, according to Western diplomats and a regional intelligence official.
Their leader is 27-year-old Johnson André, better known as Izo, who was sanctioned by the US in December for kidnapping American citizens, murder, possession of illegal firearms, hijacking and documented cases of sexual violence.
Izo often posts videos of himself dancing and drinking on social media.
A video of Izo dancing and holding a bottle of alcohol, with dozens of bottles behind him.
But starting in March, he added a new persona, openly declaring himself cartel leader and head of a new “tactical corps.”
A video of Izo sitting in a vehicle and wearing tactical gear.
The logo bears the name of the corps: Unité Village de Dieu, or Unite Village of God, the name of Izo’s neighborhood.
An annotated image of the UVD emblem, showing guns and a dinosaur.
Videos show Izo using live drone feeds to direct attacks on police.
Izo looks at a screen while talking into a walkie-talkie.
And he appears in highly choreographed footage of him supervising men in tactical gear.
Dozens of UVD members dressed as soldiers with guns.
The look of their vehicles was once inspired by the infamous Los Angeles Crips gang.
Several men in matching blue outfits stand in front of a blue Toyota truck that reads ‘CRIPS’.
Now their vehicles are cloaked in camouflage and organized with consecutive license plates.
A vehicle dressed in camouflage with a UVD license plate.
And Segonn’s actions are becoming increasingly bold, attacking targets deeper into government-held territory.
A video of a government building under fire.
They taunted the security forces by destroying one of their vehicles near the National Palace, an important symbol of the government.
A video of a Haitian National Police vehicle on fire.
And in April they hijacked a cargo ship, docked it at a gang-controlled wharf and looted some of the rice it was carrying.
A video of men unloading bags of rice from a cargo ship.
The weapons that have historically fueled violence in Haiti were typically stolen from the Haitian military and police, or purchased from stores in the United States and smuggled into the Caribbean.
But the FN FAL rifles seen in the 5 Segonn gang, for example, are a newer model than the version acquired by the Haitian military in the 1980s, a former senior Haitian official told The Times, raising questions about their origin.
The new weapons could come from Colombia, where President Gustavo Petro announced last month that millions of bullets, thousands of grenades and other weapons had been looted from military warehouses. They were sold to armed groups such as cartels, he said, and on the international black market, including to Haitian gangs.
Justice Department officials say the sources may be more widespread, with weapons coming from other militaries in South and Central America. Brazil is one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers, they note, producing some of the military weapons now used by Haitian gangs.
Still, U.S. officials say they have limited insight into what’s happening in Haiti because the poor security situation means they don’t have enough staff on the ground to monitor gang activity.
The increasing lethality of the gangs’ arsenals may also indicate an increasingly strong link with cartels in Latin America, said a senior regional intelligence official and two diplomats who spoke on background to discuss sensitive information. They pointed out the growing importance of Haiti as a cocaine smuggling route to Europe.
Izo is now working with one of the main suspects in Mr. Moïse’s 2021 assassination: Dimitri Hérard, former head of the president’s security department, according to the intelligence official, a senior Foreign Ministry official and a third Western diplomat based in Haiti, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Haitian officials said Mr. Hérard was among the prisoners released during the prison outbreak in February.
A wanted poster for Mr. Hérard, released this month by Haitian police, warns that he is armed and dangerous, and wanted on several charges, including: rape, murder, terrorism and prison escape.
Haitian National Police via Facebook
The sources said that Mr. Hérard appears to be helping organize and advising Izo’s gang to look beyond local battles and pursue more strategic goals related to drug trafficking and national politics, and that he may be a link to larger criminal organizations in the region, including drug cartels.
The rise of Haitian gangs began several decades ago. The armed bandits were used by politicians to suppress voter turnout or anti-government protests and by the business elite to secure land for industrial purposes or to attack rival companies.
But like many things in Haiti, that has now all been turned upside down.
