A former lawmaker who was previously sanctioned by the United States and Canada for allegedly equipping gangs in Haiti’s central region has been taken into custody by Haitian police. Haiti’s National Police said Sunday that they had detained Prophane Victor, a former member of Parliament who served as the representative of the Petite Riviere commune in the Artibonite area, in the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Whether Victor had a lawyer or not was not immediately apparent.
In a nation where prominent politicians suspected of murder and gang involvement frequently function with impunity and travel freely, his capture is a rare victory for Haitian authorities.
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According to a police statement, Victor was repeatedly accused by a former gang boss of conspiring with other gang members who were active in Artibonite, particularly in the Savien neighborhood.
To ensure his victory in the 2016 election, Victor started arming young men in Petite Riviere, according to a UN report published last year. The biggest gang in Artibonite, Gran Grif, was later founded by those individuals.
According to the article, “unfulfilled promises made during the election period” caused Victor and Gran Grif to fall out in 2020. Officials have since charged Victor with aiding rival gangs.
Victor was sanctioned by the US in September 2024 and Canada in June 2023 for allegedly aiding gangs “that have committed serious human rights abuses.”
The Gran Grif gang was charged in October with carrying out one of the worst murders in Haiti’s recent history, which claimed the lives of scores of people. The Artibonite region’s Pont-Sonde village is where the massacre took place.
