SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — On Tuesday, officials in the Dominican Republic announced the interception of a shipment from Miami intended for Haiti. This shipment contained 36,000 cartridges, 23 firearms, and more than two dozen chargers for rifles and pistols.
Additionally, authorities discovered a submachine gun and a charger for a .50-caliber rifle, as revealed by the Dominican customs office. Investigations are ongoing with assistance from U.S. entities, including the Department of Homeland Security. Notably, Dominican agents recently seized 37 weapons at the same port in Santo Domingo.
This crackdown comes amidst escalating gang violence in Haiti, particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The violence has displaced 25,000 individuals in just a fortnight, as reported by the International Organization for Migration. In 2022, more than 5,600 Haitians lost their lives, with gang-related violence rendering over a million homeless, according to the U.N.
The Caribbean saw a troubling surge in killings last year, largely attributed to illegal firearms. It is estimated that 90% of these weapons were smuggled from the United States, as highlighted by U.S. authorities.
In a related incident, Jamaican police reported that they charged a truck driver from Columbus, Georgia, with trafficking prohibited weapons. This followed the seizure of 66 firearms and over 4,500 rounds of ammunition at a port in Kingston last month. The suspect, holding citizenship in both the U.S. and Jamaica, was arrested on the island.
