The high seas shooting leads to the seizure of 2,300 pounds of cocaine, 3 suspects killed on the coast of Haiti

Three alleged drug traffickers were killed in a fire exchange when the police in Haiti confiscated more than 2,300 pounds of cocaine aboard a boat, authorities said on Tuesday, in a rare seizure of drugs in the problematic Caribbean country.

The police raid took place on the northern coast of Haiti, near Tortue Island, where it is suspected that transfer traffickers, said Port-de-Paix prosecutor Jeir Pierre, told Tuesday to Radio Caraïbes.

Pierre said the police have long postponed any action in that place due to lack of resources, but said that a regional police director recently requested a ship to use it on Tortue Island.

“We have had this area in our view for a long time,” Pierre said.

The police approached an alleged drug trafficking boat on Sunday and ordered the suspects on board to raise their hands, but did not fulfill and, instead, opened fire against the officers, Pierre said.

The officers returned the fire, with two alleged drug traffickers who jumped into the ocean and then died. A third alleged drug trafficker died on the coast, while a room, of the Bahamas, was injured and then arrested, Pierre said.

Police said on social networks that one of the suspects who died was a man from Jamaica.

Police also published images on the social networks of the seized cocaine. The photos showed officers with drug batteries, with some of the packages labeled as “rolex” on the front.

Pierre said that no Haitian police officer were injured.

The United States government has previously noticed that powerful people in Haiti are involved in drug trafficking in the country.

In August 2024, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned former Haitian President Michel Martelly, accusing him of abusing his influence to facilitate drug trafficking, including cocaine, intended for the United States.

“Many of Haiti’s political and commercial elites have been involved for a long time in drug trafficking and have been related to gangs responsible for the violence that has destabilized Haiti,” said the Treasury Department.

Haiti has long served as a transit center for the movement of cocaine and other illicit drugs to the Republic of the United States and Dominican, according to a report from the United Nations Office on drugs and crime.

The UN office has also noticed that some of Haiti’s gangs have arsenals larger than the police, since they have become “richer, richer and more autonomous.”

• Haiti
• Cocaine