HAITI - The assault rifles and pistols arrived in Haiti stashed in two cardboard boxes, nes-tled among packages of food and clothes, on a cargo ship stacked with rust-red shipping containers.
They had come from the US, which one expert describes as a "supermarket" feeding an arms race among gangs that have brought chaos to the Caribbean island nation. An investigation by the BBC World Service and BBC Verify traced the two boxes' journey, showing how weapons from the US reach Haiti. It reveals a chain of lax laws, absent checks and suspected corruption used by traffickers to bypass a UN embargo.
Haitian police announced in April 2024 that they had seized the two boxes. They contained 12 assault rifles, 14 pistols and 999 ammunition cartridges. A police photo clearly shows weapons from two different US-based manufacturers. The shipment had travelled nearly 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Cap-Haitien in northern Haiti, on the Rainer D cargo ship.
The shipping container was filled in a warehouse yard in Fort Lauderdale, according to a UN Panel of Experts, which is tasked with monitoring sanctions on Haiti and investigated the shipment. Haitians in the US frequently ship much-needed food and other items to the country. A man named Anestin Predestin told the Miami Herald that in late February 2024, he was leasing out space in the container. (BBC)
