US sanctions former Haitian security head, gang leader for aiding gang coalition
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Dimitri Herard and Kempes Sanon for enabling the Viv Ansanm gang coalition responsible for over 5,600 deaths and widespread instability in Haiti.
- On Friday, the U.S. Treasury slapped sanctions on Dimitri Herard, former head of Haitian presidential security, and Kempes Sanon, head of the Bel Air gang.
- The agency said the two men supported Viv Ansanm gang coalition, designated a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year, and Treasury wrote Herard colluded after escaping prison in 2024.
- Investigators detail that Herard provided `training and firearms` to gang leaders and directly backs Viv Ansanm’s attacks on state institutions, while the Treasury accused Herard of facilitating violence in Haiti.
- The measures freeze their U.S. properties and block business transactions with the two men, and Bradley T. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, wrote this underscores their role in enabling Viv Ansanm’s violence.
- Gang violence has crippled Haiti since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, with gangs seizing control and the international community struggling to find solutions.
The United States government has added two individuals linked to armed gangs in Haiti to its sanctions blacklist, including a former police officer linked to the 2021 assassination of then-President Jovenel Moïse, who managed to escape from prison last year.
Specifically, Dimitri Herard, who was convicted in Moise’s death and allegedly collaborated with the Viv Ansanm armed coalition, belongs to this alliance. The Bel Air gang, whose leader, Kempes Sanon, was also named this Friday by the US Treasury Department.
The director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Bradley T. Smith, promised in a statement that the United States will continue working to hold accountable “the violent terrorist groups that endanger the Haitian population,” responsible for a “campaign of violence, extortion, and terrorism.”
Violence persists as one of the greatest scourges of Haiti, a country marked in recent years by a political vacuum and security scarcity. The UN estimates that there are around half a million illegal weapons on Haitian streets, despite the country’s theoretical embargo.
This instability has also exacerbated the humanitarian crisis. More than 1.4 million people are currently living as displaced persons in Haiti, a record number that represents a 36 percent increase compared to the figures at the end of 2024, according to a recent report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
