Tracking weapons flows from the US

Strong rifles and pistols arrived at Haiti, hidden in two cardboard boxes, arranged among food and clothing packages, on a cargo ship, made up of sprouting containers.

They came from the United States, which one expert describes as a “supermarket” who fed a weapon race among gangs that brought chaos to the Caribbean nation.

The BBC World Service and BBC investigation checked the journey in two boxes, showing how weapons from the US reaches Haiti. It reveals a chain of relaxed laws, there is no verification and suspicion of corruption used by the UN traders.

In April 2024, Haiti police announced that she had captured two boxes. They contained 12 assault rifles, 14 pistols and 999 ammunition rounds.

The police photo clearly shows the weapons of two different manufacturers in the US.

The shipment set off almost 1200 km (746 miles) from Fort Lodardil in Florida to Cap Hitien on North Haiti, Rainer D.

According to the UN experts, the delivery container was filled with the court warehouse to the Fort -Lodard, which is instructed to monitor the sanctions on Haiti and investigate the shipment.

Haitians to the United States often send so much necessary food to the country.

Anestin Predestin told The Miami Herald that he was renting a place in the container at the end of February 2024.

He told the newspaper that a man who called his name as “Diamortino” put in two boxes, saying they contained “clothes” – and that he was shocked, learning that they kept weapons.

BBC attempts to contact Mr. Predestin were unsuccessful.

It is unclear where the weapons were purchased. Weapons are not produced in Haiti, and previous attacks included weapons purchased in Florida.

Sometimes he called the “firearms state”, Florida was one of the about 30 states, where by 2024 private, unlicensed sellers could sell firearms, for example, on shows and on the Internet, not performing checks. As President Joe Biden has strengthened these rules at the national level.

The UN panel says that the two Haiti brothers used in the US used “straw buyers” – people who buy on their behalf – to buy weapons in confiscated shipment.

Experts say this is a normal method, often with weapons transported in several small quantities, a process called “Armine Trade”.

The container was sent by an international shipping company for a shipping company based in Florida, Gaiti police said.

Alliance International Shiping does not own ships that go on Haiti but buys a place on ships and sells it to customers such as Mr Predestin.

The company’s president, Ryhor Moral, said in a BBC statement that she provides empty containers to clients, but is not physically interacting with cargo.

“Unfortunately, we do not have viable funds to prevent illegal supplies,” he says, adding the company cooperation with the authorities and has many employees who come from Haiti.

“Tragically, many of our own families have been victims of violence in Haiti’s weapons,” he adds.

The BBC addressed the US Customs and Border Protection to ask if it was possible to check if it left the US but did not receive a response.

The UN panel said last September that the US searches increased, but “the vast majority of 200 containers sent from Southern Florida in Haiti are not checked.”

Former official from the US Bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives (ATF) Bill Kulman said the BBC that checking the weekend is “very scattered” and the supply volume “is incredible.

Haiti police say he had revealed a weapon in a “purposeful search” of a container.

According to the UN Board, a high -ranking Haitian customs official put one of the boxes containing weapons in his car and was arrested and fired in a few days.

Police said she was looking for a person called Wilman Jean, which is named in customs as a sender to send – the person responsible for his receipt.

The BBC understands from Haiti sources that he is a customs broker, is in the course of and suspected that he is connected with a gang in the north.

The preliminary report of the UN states that Customs operations Haiti suffer from lack of potential, corruption among high -ranking officials, threats and attacks by gangs.

The BBC tries to contact the Haitian customs authorities for comment, were unsuccessful.

Approximately at a time when the weapon was killed in a shipping container, a wave of gang violence swept through the Haiti capital, Port-O-Press.

The gangs released thousands of prisoners from the main prison and blocked the ports of the capital and the airport.

In March 2024, Prime Minister Ariel Henry was unable to return from a foreign trip, agreed to leave office.

According to the UN. His agencies say that almost a tenth of the population – more than a million people – escaped home, and half the population threatens acute hunger. The abduction and extortion are rich.

Wilson, a Master from Port-O Pre-Press, was shot dead, trying to escape when the gangs fought over the territory in their area.

“It was chaos, everyone was running out of their homes,” he said the BBC. “My foot stopped working. When I lowered, blood was considered.”

Now he lives with hundreds of other people at a school used as a shelter.

Experts say the authorities are not able to return control, despite the support of international security forces, including at least 800 Kenyan police officers.

The gangs have received the territory in the last six months, and now control at least 85% of the capital, says Ramen Le Ku, Haiti expert in the world initiative against transnational organized crime, NGO headquarters in Geneva.

The gang participants often present high -caliber social networks. Experts reported the BBC, some of the firing shifts were certainly made in the US, and others were most likely manufactured there.

However, weapons and ammunition “keep coming,” says Mr. Lu Kur, who is “a massive driver for violence and instability.”

To explore the potential trading scale in the US, using similar delivery routes, the BBC analyzed customs data that has shared with us on the Cargofax delivery platform.

We have compiled a list of people under sanctions for allegedly gangti ties in Haiti, and others arrested in Haiti or the US as suspected of weapons.

We checked these names for thousands of records from the US delivery to Haiti for four years.

A total of 26 people in this list were named sent for 286 suppliers before people were put under sanctions or arrested. It is unclear whether these supplies of weapons contain.

24 times as a resort was the renewal Victor, a former MP of the Haiti Parliament, who was later put under the sanctions of the UN and the United States for weapons of gangs and weapons for trafficking in human beings. He was arrested in Haiti in January.

“First of all, the US authorities don’t do enough,” says Mr.

Mr. Kulman, a former US official at ATP, says there is no legal commitment to report on suspicious buyers.

He says that changes in the laws on weapons are “really politically achieved”, but he would like to see a voluntary code of behavior for the firearms that cover issues such as sales of suspicious buyers and exchange.

In addition, the registration of the weapon – similar to the registration of cars – acts in several states and can be “truly useful” if taken more widely, adds Mr. Kulman.

Jonathan Low, president of global action violence, says that the creators of the weapon tells when investigating, and they know what dealers sell weapons to traders.

“The manufacturers who cut off these dealers would stop directly for most trafficking routes from the US.”

The BBC contacted ATF and the US Department of Security, but received no answers.

Mr -n le Ku says international control over the problem has increased, but there is no visible impact: “We know that we have a diagnosis, we know what symptoms, but we do nothing to actually cure it.”

Additional Thomas Spencer Report, BBC Check

Daniel Ars-Lopez’s graphics, friend Jake, Kate Heinar, Jerry Fletcher and Caroline Susa