Shootout on high seas leads to seizure of 2,300 pounds of cocaine, 3 suspects killed off coast of Haiti

Three suspected drug traffickers were killed in an exchange of fire as police in Haiti confiscated more than 2,300 pounds of cocaine aboard a boat, officials said Tuesday, in a rare drug seizure in the troubled Caribbean country.

The police raid took place off the coast of northern Haiti near Tortue Island where traffickers are suspected of transferring drugs, Port-de-Paix prosecutor Jeir Pierre told Radio Caraïbes on Tuesday.

Pierre said police have long postponed any action at that location because of a lack of resources, but noted that a regional police director recently requested a boat to use around Tortue Island.

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

Police approached a suspected drug trafficking boat on Sunday and ordered the suspects aboard to raise their hands, but they did not comply and instead opened fire at the officers, Pierre said.

Officers returned fire, with two suspected drug traffickers jumping into the ocean and later dying. A third suspected drug trafficker died on shore while a fourth one, from the Bahamas, was injured and later arrested, Pierre said.

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

Police also released images on social media of the seized cocaine. The photos showed officers next to stacks of drugs, with some of the packages labeled “Rolex” on the front.

Pierre said no Haitian police officers were injured.

The U.S. government has previously noted that powerful people in Haiti are involved in the country’s drug trade.

In August 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned former Haitian President Michel Martelly, accusing him of abusing his influence to facilitate the trafficking of drugs, including cocaine, destined for the U.S.

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

Haiti has long served as a transit hub for the movement of cocaine and other illicit drugs to the U.S. and Dominican Republic, according to a report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

The U.N. office has also noted that some of Haiti’s gangs have bigger arsenals than the police as they have become “stronger, richer and more autonomous.”