7 days ago
‘Prison or death awaits': U.S. trucker accused of financing Haiti gang leader
Three Haiti-born naturalized U.S. citizens, including a trucker who lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina, have been charged with trying to orchestrate the violent overthrow of the Haitian government by providing weapons and money to one of their homeland's most notorious gang leaders.
Bazile Richardson and two other unnamed co-conspirators were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on charges of assisting Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier, the former police officer who became leader of the G9 and Family gang and now is one of the heads of the powerful Viv Ansanm gang coalition.
Richardson, who described himself as a close friend who grew up with Chérizier, is accused of conspiring with others in the U.S., Haiti and elsewhere to violate U.S. sanctions, according to the redacted indictment.
Federal prosecutors claim that tens of thousands of dollars Richardson and others sent money to Haiti between December 2020 and January of this year. Prosecutors say the money was sent via intermediaries and wired to U.S. dollar banking accounts in Haiti so Chérizier could purchase weapons and vehicles, and pay salaries to his 'soldiers.'
Under investigation since 2022, Richardson was arrested in Houston last month.
Last year, Chérizier's G-9 joined with other criminal armed groups to form Viv Ansanm, 'Living Together,' to create an alliance of Haiti's most powerful gangs. After launching coordinated attacks at its debut in February 2024 year that forced the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Viv Ansanm has been responsible for thousands of deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands of Haitians.
Today, members control the majority of Port-au-Prince through violence and extortion, while driving creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region.
'Prison or death'
'I grew up with BBQ,' Richardson said in a voice memo he forwarded to one of the co-conspirators, according to the indictment. 'I am not afraid of saying that the head of G9 is a close friend of mine, he is like a brother to me.'
After admitting to speaking daily with Chérizier, Richardson added, 'People cannot scare me because I live in the U.S. and I am not trying to conspire against the U.S. [Expletive] you, America. I am defending my country, which the U.S. embassy is destroying.'
Then in the same message he went on to say he knows two things await him: prison or death.
In December 2020, Chérizier and two former Haitian government officials were sanctioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for their role in leading armed groups in coordinated, brutal attacks in Port-au-Prince, including a 2018 massacre in the capital's La Saline working class neighborhood. He was also cited for other attacks.
Despite the designation, the indictment says, Richardson and another unnamed co-conspirator 'led a wide-ranging conspiracy' to raise funds for the former cop's gang activities in Haiti. Richardson had knowledge of Chérizier's sanctions, prosecutors claim, highlighting comments he made to the effect. 'They are watching everything because of the sanctions,' he allegedly told someone as he was instructing them how to send money to Haiti.
Terrorist designation
Earlier this year, Chérizier was designated a global and foreign terrorist and Viv Ansanm a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization.' The designation extends U.S. jurisdiction to anyone assisting the gangs. Anyone found guilty of assisting the gangs may be regarded as terrorists and face harsher penalties.
That includes the possibility that gang leaders and members could be sent to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, the largest maximum-security prison in Latin America, a senior State Department official told the Herald ahead of the designation.
According to prosecutors, Richardson wired at least $9,313 to Haiti to aid gang activities between Sept. 27 and Oct. 12, 2021. Three years later, around March 2024, some of the Haitians in the U.S. were wiring as much as $49,000 to people in Haiti, who withdrew the money to pay gang members in their self-described 'revolution' after the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse plunged the country into near anarchy.
By that September, prosecutors claim, with his savings almost gone, Richardson held conversations with a co-conspirator in the U.S. he says was ready to invest $50,000 in the fight.
Richardson had been under investigation since 2022. He was arrested in Houston on July 23.
Communiction among co-conspirators
Chérizier's name remains sealed in the indictment for now, but he is described as a sanctioned individual accused of soliciting money from members of the Haitian diaspora in the United States, including Richardson, through both direct messaging and social media apps.
The gang leader 'regularly communicated' with Richardson and the other co-conspirators about what resources were needed to fund his gang activities, prosecutors said. After funds were sent, the co-conspirators sent images of the money transfer receipts to sindividuals in Haiti.
None of the co-conspirators, including Richardson, who also topped up the gang leader's cell phone so they could communicate directly, applied for or obtained the necessary licenses from U.S. authorities to lawfully conduct the transactions listed in the indictment, the authorities said.
At one point, according to the indictment, Richardson was promised the opportunity of serving 'in the new government,' according to a voice memo he forwarded in June 2022.
'Revolution' in Haiti
In the voice note, one of the Haiti-based co-conspirators told Richardson his role in the U.S. 'is to push initiatives to help the cause…. If I have backup, we will take the power and you will be able to come back to your country. You will need to serve in the new government.' In other voice memos, the co-conspirators in Haiti spoke of wanting to 'start a revolution in Haiti and trying to collect funds,' with a goal of targeting 1,000 Haitians living abroad to contribute $20 each, or having a million Haitians each giving $1 dollars. For those living inside the country, the group proposed targeting 1,000 Haitians in each of the 10 regions and collecting 5,000 gourdes, or about $40 from each.
'With this money, they can buy pickup trucks, weapons, ammunition, clothing to include T-shirts, boots and hats,' according to a voice memo. 'We want to change everything in Haiti.'
Raising money wasn't the only objective, according to the indictment. On June 25, 2022, Richardson forwarded a voice note where an unidentified individual said, 'Exactly what we need are weapons and vehicles. We have a lot of soldiers…. All we need are vehicles and weapons for 1,000 soldiers to attack.'
Because of the depreciation of the Haitian gourdes and fees, both Richardson and those he was funding were desperate to identify people in Haiti with U.S. bank accounts so that the money could be wired directly, the indictment says.
According to the indictment, one of the con-conspirator resides in New York while another lives in Massachusetts. The indictment also singles out five unnamed Haitian co-conspirators including one who moved to North Carolina from Haiti.
