Haiti Turns to Private Military Contractors in Fight Against Gangs

Haiti’s government has turned to foreign private military contractors linked to Blackwater founder Erik Prince to help fight armed gangs, adding a privately operated force to a security campaign already involving Haitian police and an international mission.

Prince’s company, Vectus Global, has provided support for anti-gang operations, including the use of drones, according to published reporting. The operation reflects the government’s search for additional help against criminal groups that have seized territory, disrupted transportation and terrorized communities.

The contractors’ involvement became public in 2025. Subsequent reporting has described their participation in an intensified campaign against gang strongholds in Port-au-Prince.

Prince told Reuters in August 2025 that he had reached a 10-year arrangement with Haiti’s government to combat gangs and eventually help restore customs-tax collection. He said the company would help develop a system for taxing goods imported across the border with the Dominican Republic once security improved.

The financial terms were not disclosed.

The Associated Press separately reported plans for a deployment of nearly 200 personnel from several countries under a one-year security agreement. Reuters described plans involving snipers, intelligence and communications specialists, helicopters and boats. Those accounts outlined anticipated deployments, rather than establishing the operation’s current strength.

The differing descriptions of the agreement’s duration leave questions about how its security and revenue-collection components fit together.

Prince, a former Navy SEAL, founded Blackwater, which became one of the most prominent private security companies operating during the Iraq War. He later sold the company. His Haiti operation is conducted through Vectus Global.

The company’s personnel are separate from Haiti’s national police, its military and the international security mission, although they are operating against the same broader threat.

Gangs have attacked police stations, hospitals and other public facilities while taking control of important roads and neighborhoods. Their activities include kidnapping, extortion, sexual violence and attacks that have forced families to flee their homes.

Control of transportation routes also has economic consequences. When gangs block roads or demand payments from vehicles, they interfere with commerce and weaken the government’s ability to collect revenue.

Prince has presented reopening those routes as a practical measure of success. In his Reuters interview, he said an important benchmark would be the ability to travel between Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien in an ordinary, unarmored vehicle without being stopped by gangs.

The private operation nevertheless raises questions about oversight, accountability and the protection of civilians during fighting in densely populated neighborhoods. Its proposed connection to customs collection also gives the arrangement significance beyond battlefield operations.

Researchers examining Haiti’s crisis have identified a fragmented security response involving multiple government bodies, foreign personnel and private contractors. That makes coordination — and establishing responsibility for individual operations — particularly important.

CNN has publicized an exclusive report offering access to Prince’s Haiti operation, bringing renewed attention to a campaign that has largely unfolded outside public view.

The central question remains whether privately supplied military expertise can produce lasting security gains. Retaking a street or neighborhood is one task; keeping it secure, restoring public services and preventing armed groups from returning are others.

For Haiti’s residents, the outcome will be measured less by the identity of the forces involved than by whether they can travel, work and remain in their homes without fear.