A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has indicted one of Haiti’s most notorious gang bosses, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions.
The grand jury indictment, issued on July 17 but not unsealed until Tuesday, named Cherizier and a North Carolina resident, Bazile “Fredo Pam” Richardson, as the leaders of a massive conspiracy to circumvent U.S. sanctions and finance Cherizier’s criminal activities. Two other unnamed co-conspirators were described in the document.
The conspiracy included soliciting money from Haitians living in the United States and using it to pay for guns and salaries for Cherizier’s foot soldiers.
“The FBI is committed to confronting foreign terrorist organizations wherever they operate, and Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier’s gang is no exception,” said Acting Assistant Director Darren Cox of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division when the indictment was unsealed on Tuesday.
“Through intelligence, partnerships, and the full weight of federal law, we are dismantling FTOs and rooting out those who threaten the safety of our communities,” Cox promised.
Acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd M. Lyons said the indictment was the result of “a lengthy investigation into Jimmy Cherizier’s criminal activities.”
“His actions to fund the oppression and slaughter of Haitians, including firearm procurement and trafficking networks, fundraising activities, movement and usage of U.S. dollars, and violations of sanctions, are unconscionable — but today marks a step towards accountability,” Lyons said.
Cherizier and Haiti’s other gang bosses unleashed chaos after Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in July 2021. The gangs now control about 90 percent of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, despite the deployment of several hundred Kenyan police officers under the auspices of the United Nations to augment Haiti’s security forces. Gangs have also spread into the Haitian countryside, terrorizing farm communities, displacing thousands of people, and raising the threat of famine.
Last week, when businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr took over as the fourth and putatively final head of Haiti’s transitional government, Cherizier threatened to launch a massive terrorist attack to topple the government once and for all. The final “battle to free the country,” as he described it, has yet to materialize, but constant gang violence persists across Port-au-Prince.
The U.S. State Department is offering a bounty of up to $5 million for Cherizier’s arrest — which some observers find bizarre, because he is the most highly visible of Haiti’s gang lords, constantly issuing video proclamations and sitting for media interviews.
Cherizier, believed to be around 50 years old, is a former Haitian National Police (HNP) officer. His criminal activities reportedly began while he was still on the police force, including allegedly participating in a horrific massacre of civilians in November 2018 that killed at least 71 people, destroyed over 400 houses, and led to multiple reports of rape. Many of the victims were hacked to pieces with machetes.
The La Saline Massacre, as it came to be known, was the worst bloodshed Haiti had seen in a decade. The perpetrators were a mix of gang thugs and corrupt cops reportedly under Cherizier’s control. Two sitting members of the late President Moise’s administration were charged with complicity in the killing. To this day, Haiti is rife with allegations that politicians and prominent businessmen are in league with Cherizier and other gangsters.
Cherizier was discharged from the HNP after the La Saline massacre, and a warrant was issued for his arrest, but he was able to build a formidable criminal organization called “G9 Family and Allies” that robbed and killed Haitian civilians on a constant basis. His abuses of human rights caused him to be individually sanctioned by the United States in 2020.
In late 2023, Cherizer formed a partnership with another large gang called G-Pep, folded some smaller bands of thugs into his coalition, and created Viv Ansanm (“Living Together”).
Cherizier’s new crime coalition has run wild across Haiti, taking over entire neighborhoods, launching attacks against critical infrastructure, and striking out against the Justice, Defense, and Interior Ministries of the Haitian government. Viv Ansanm has destroyed hospitals and schools, looted humanitarian supplies, blockaded roadways, and shut down air and sea ports.
The orgy of crime that erupted after Viv Ansanm’s formation played a large role in forcing Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the unelected leader who took control of the government after Moise was murdered, to announce his resignation in February 2024. The transitional government was seated two months later.
In May, Viv Ansanm seized control of an entire town called Mirebalais and threw a victory concert for itself in the town square. Frustrated by the apparent ineffectiveness of police and security forces, a mob of rural Haitians stormed the country’s main power plant in June and plunged Port-au-Prince into darkness.
Viv Ansanm was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in May 2025. Cherizier himself is a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
Despite his long history of murder, rape, terrorism, and theft, Cherizier styles himself as a “freedom fighter” and revolutionary seeking to free Haitians from their corrupt government. He often claims, falsely, that he would never prey upon people from humble origins like himself. His mother ran a fried chicken stand in the slums of Port-au-Prince, which is where he claims the nickname “Barbecue” comes from.
In media interviews, Cherizier compares himself to great revolutionary figures from history, ranging from Robin Hood to Martin Luther King, Jr. Among human rights activists and government officials across the civilized world, he is known as a thug, a terrorist, and a major obstacle to Haiti’s recovery from anarchy.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro noted that Cherizier’s victims have included American citizens in Haiti.
“The U.S. Attorney’s office is committed to apprehending Cherizier and bringing him to justice, along with individuals like defendant Richardson, who has sent money and other support to Cherizier from the United States in violation of U.S. sanctions,” Pirro said.
“Our office is committed to keeping Americans safe anywhere in the world, and the gang violence that has ravaged Haiti must end,” she said.
Cherizier’s named co-conspirator, Bazile Richardson, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and works as a truck driver. He has described Cherizier as a childhood friend from when his family lived in Haiti.
“I grew up with Barbecue. I am not afraid of saying that the head of G9 is a close friend of mine. He is like a brother to me,” Richardson said in a voice message obtained by law enforcement.
Prosecutors say Richardson has funneled tens of thousands of dollars from Haitians living in America to Cherizier’s gang.
Some of the “donations” collected and forwarded by Richardson ran into tens of thousands of dollars, but his fundraising plan largely relied on collecting small amounts from hundreds of individual Haitians of more modest means. His scheme relied on recruiting Haitians with bank accounts in the United States who could handle his money transfers.
“People cannot scare me because I live in the U.S. and I am not trying to conspire against the U.S. Fuck you, America. I am defending my country, which the U.S. Embassy is destroying,” he said in the intercepted voice message.
Some of Richardson’s other correspondence suggested he believed Cherizier would launch a “revolution” to overthrow the transitional government, after which Richardson could return to Haiti as an official in the new regime.
Richardson was arrested in Houston in July, following a two-year investigation that conclusively established he was aware that his activities violated U.S. sanctions.
Read the full article here