Expolice

The United States Treasury has sanctioned two Haitians, one a former police officer and the other an alleged gang leader, for their affiliation with the Viv Ansanm criminal alliance.

On Friday, a Treasury news release accused Dimitri Herard and Kempes Sanon of colluding with Viv Ansanm, thereby contributing to the violence wracking Haiti.

The sanctions block either person from accessing assets or property in the US. They also prohibit US-based entities from engaging in transactions with the two men.

“Today’s action underscores the critical role of gang leaders and facilitators like Herard and Sanon, whose support enables Viv Ansanm’s campaign of violence, extortion, and terrorism in Haiti,” Bradley T Smith, the director of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement.

Since taking office for a second term, US President Donald Trump has sought to take a hardline stance against criminal organisations across Latin America, blaming the groups for unregulated immigration and drug-trafficking on US soil.

Trump has termed their actions a criminal “invasion”, using nativist rhetoric to justify military action in international waters.

Viv Ansanm has been part of Trump’s crackdown. On his first day in office, on January 20, Trump issued an executive order setting the stage for his administration to label Latin American criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organisations”.

That process began several weeks later. In May, Viv Ansanm and another Haitian criminal organisation, Gran Grif, were added to the growing list of criminal networks to receive the “foreign terrorist” designation.

Since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021, a power vacuum has formed in Haiti. The last national elections were held in 2016, and its last democratically elected officials reached the end of their terms in 2023.

That has created a crisis of public confidence that criminal networks, including gangs, have exploited to expand their power. Viv Ansanm is one of the most powerful groups, as a coalition of gangs largely based in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

In July, Ghada Waly, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, warned that the gangs now have “near-total control of the capital”, with 90 percent of its territory under their control.

Nearly 1.4 million people have been displaced in the country as a result of the gang violence, a 36 percent increase over 2024. Last year, more than 5,600 people were killed, and a further 2,212 injured.

In Friday’s sanctions, the US Treasury accused Herard, the former police officer, of having “colluded with the Viv Ansanm alliance”, including through training and the provision of guns.

It also noted that Herard had been imprisoned by Haitian authorities for involvement in the Moise assassination. He later escaped in 2024.

Sanon, meanwhile, is identified as the leader of the Bel Air gang, part of the Viv Ansanm alliance. The Treasury said he “played a significant role” in building Viv Ansanm’s power, and it added that he has been implicated in killings, extortion and kidnappings.

The UN Security Council echoed the US’s sanctions against Sanon and Herard, designating both men on Friday. It also agreed to extend its arms embargo on Haiti, which began in 2022.

In September, the UNSC also approved the creation of a “gang suppression force”, with a 12-month mandate to work with Haitian police and military. That force is expected to replace a Kenyan-led mission to reinforce Haiti’s security forces, and it is slated to include 5,550 people.

But on Friday, the Trump administration said that the UN had not gone far enough in its efforts to combat Haiti’s gangs. It called for more designations against individual suspects.

“While we applaud the Council for designating these individuals, the list is not complete. There are more enablers of Haiti’s insecurity evading accountability,” an open letter from US Ambassador Jennifer Locetta read.

“Haiti deserves better. Colleagues, we will continue pressing for more designations through the Security Council and its subsidiary bodies to ensure the sanctions lists are fit for purpose.”

June 7 (UPI) — A former Arkansas police chief who escaped from a prison 12 days ago was apprehended about a mile and half from where he was incarcerated in northwest Arkansas.

Grant Hardin, known as the “Devil in the Ozarks,” was caught around 3 p.m. local time Friday by Arkansas law enforcement officers and the U.S. Border Patrol, according to Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Hardin, 56, was an inmate at the North Central Unit in Calico Rock in Izard County for murder and rape. Calico Rock is 126 miles north of Little Rock.

Tracking dogs picked up Hardin’s scent west of the prison near Moccasin Creek in Izard County, the state agency said.

Hardin was brought back to the North Central Unit where he was identified using his fingerprint and for a physical exam before he was moved to the Varner SuperMax Unit in Gould, Arkansas, Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion told CNN.

After a dayslong manhunt that crossed several states, Champion said Hardin would be interviewed to learn more about his escape and nearly two weeks on the run.

“This was a great joint operation by a number of agencies, and I’m so thankful for their tireless efforts,” Dexter Payne, director of the Division of Correction in Arkansas’ Department of Corrections, said in an agency press release. “The Arkansas State Police, U.S. Marshals, FBI, Border Patrol, Game and Fish, all the state and local agencies, along with the dedication of our Department employees, all played an indispensable role and I express my extreme gratitude.”

Hardin escaped from the prison at approximately 2:55 p.m. on May 25. The agency said he “was wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement” when he escaped, but was not wearing an actual guard uniform and all DOC-issued equipment was accounted for.

Hardin is the former chief of police for the city of Gateway in Benton County, which had a population of 444 people in 2023. He also was a police officer, county constable and corrections officer. Gateway, which is near the Missouri border, is 129 miles west of Calico Rock.

Since 2017, he was in the North Central Unit serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, and 25 years for each rape count.

He pleaded guilty to the murder of James Appleton, 59, a city water employee found shot in the face inside his work truck in October 2017, KNWA reported.

Hardin’s DNA linked him to the 1997 rape of a teacher, the TV station reported. Amy Harrison, a teacher at Frank Tillery Elementary in Rogers, was ambushed while preparing lesson plans at the school when she was ambushed and assaulted by a man with a gun.

“He’s a sociopath,” former Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith told Arkansas ABC affiliate KHBS/KHOG. “Prison’s not full of people who are all bad. It’s full of a lot of people who just do bad things. Grant’s different.”

The FBI offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his arrest.

“Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief because violent criminal Grant Hardin is now in custody,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders posted on X. “I am grateful for all law enforcement who contributed to his capture and give special thanks to the Trump administration and Secretary Kristi Noem, who sent a team from Border Patrol that was instrumental in tracking and apprehending Hardin.”

May 26 (UPI) — Authorites in northwest Arkansas are searching for a former police chief serving time for murder and rape who escaped from prison wearing a makeshift police uniform.

The Arkansas Department of Corrections said Grant Hardin, 56, escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock in Izard County at approximately 3:40 p.m. CDT Sunday. Calico Rock is 126 miles north of Litle Rock.

The search, which was continuing Monday, is a joint effort of the Department of Corrections, Arkansas State Police, and local and state law enforcement.

The prison agency said he “was wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement” when he escaped. He was not wearing a prison guard uniform and all DOC-issued equipment has been accounted for.

Hardin was the former chief of police for the city of Gateway in Benton County, which had a population of 444 people in 2023. He also was a police officer, county constable and corrections officer. Gateway, which is near the Missouri border, is 129 miles west of Calico Rock.

Hardin is described as 6 feet, weighing approximately 259 pounds.

“Anytime there’s an escape, we consider that a threat to the public,” Rand Champion with the Arkansas Department of Corrections told KHBS-TV. “He does have a law enforcement background. Anytime something like this exists, we consider it a threat to the community.”

Since 2017, Hardin has been at the North Central Unit serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, as well as 25 years for each rape count.

He pleaded guilty to the murder of James Appleton, 59, a city water employee found shot in the face inside his work truck in October 2017, KNWA reported.

A witness told police that Appleton’s truck and a white sedan was seen on the side of the road. He said heard a loud boom and saw the sedan drive away. The witness found Appleton slumped over in the seat, with a gunshot wound to the head.

His DNA linked him to the rape cold case of a teacher in 1997, the TV station reported. Amy Harrison, a teacher at Frank Tillery Elementary in Rogers, was raped by a man with a gun at the school.

While preparing a lesson plan for the week, the teacher was ambushed.

“Grant Hardin, in my view and in my personal experience, is one of the most dangerous people that I ever seen for the reason that he does not at first appear that way,” Nathan Smith, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County at the time, said. “He is a man capable of a seemingly random, horrific murder as well as a random horrific rape.”

The sexual assault was profiled on the TNT series Cold Justice: Sex Crimes in 2015.