The United States announced on Wednesday a reward of up to $3 million, along with potential relocation, for information regarding the financial operations of Haiti’s Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif criminal networks. These groups, which unite hundreds of gangs across Port-au-Prince, the Artibonite agricultural region, and central Haiti, have been officially designated as terrorist organizations by Washington.
This move represents a strategic shift, as previous US bounties targeted individual gang leaders rather than their financial infrastructures. Haitian security forces, supported by a United Nations-backed mission deployed three years ago and a US private military contractor, have escalated operations against armed gangs that dominate much of the capital. However, they have yet to secure the arrest of any major gang leader.
Historically reliant on elite sponsorship, Haiti’s gangs have increasingly become financially autonomous as they solidified control over the capital and expanded into rural areas in recent years. Beyond controlling roads and checkpoints, these gangs are implicated in extortion, thousands of kidnappings for ransom, trafficking of firearms, drugs, and human organs, as well as theft of vehicles, buildings, and crops.
The ongoing conflict with gangs has displaced over 1.4 million people and worsened food insecurity. Since 2021, nearly 20,000 violent deaths have been reported in Haiti, with the death toll rising annually. The United Nations attributes most gang-related killings to firearms illegally trafficked into the country, many of which are believed to enter through US ports in Florida and Georgia.
