A Haitian gang leader known as "Izo" has been formally charged with the kidnapping and hostage-taking of an American citizen in Haiti, as U.S. authorities revealed in legal documents. The complaint, unsealed in the District of Columbia, names Johnson Andre—the notorious leader of the 5 Segond gang—as the main suspect in the March 2023 abduction.
The gang, operating out of Village de Dieu on the margins of Port-au-Prince, is implicated in a series of kidnappings and armed robberies, amassing wealth to reportedly finance their armory of U.S.-sourced weaponry. According to the affidavit, Andre explicitly instructed his followers to abduct individuals to demand ransoms. The American victim was forcibly taken on March 18, 2023, and subjected to a brutal nine-day ordeal before being released in exchange for an undisclosed ransom sum the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia reported.
Despite the charges, Andre remains at large and is believed to still be in Village de Dieu. Further intensifying the legal pressure, Andre was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in late 2023 for engaging in serious human rights abuses tied to his gang leadership, as per Executive Order 13818. If apprehended and convicted, Andre could potentially face life imprisonment.
The case against Andre is not only a measure of justice sought by American law enforcement but also underscores the longstanding turbulence within Haiti, where gangs like 5 Segond wield significant power amidst socio-economic instability. The investigation, led by the FBI's Miami Field Office with aid from the bureau's Legal Attaché Office in Haiti and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, is ongoing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack F. Korba is prosecuting, with help from Paralegal Specialist Michael Watts, as noted in the unsealed complaint according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
While the allegations outlined in the complaint remain to be proven in a court of law, where every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty, the circumstances described therein cast a stark light on the daunting challenges that both Haiti and the international community continue to grapple with in their efforts to restore law and order to the Caribbean nation.
