Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Clarity Times), August 17, 2024: – In the early hours of Thursday, August 15, 2024, a deadly police operation unfolded at the “Anvayi Hotel” in Carrefour Rita, a neighborhood in the northern part of the Haitian capital. Five individuals, including the notorious prison escapee Casalès Blanco, alias “Gwo Fanfan,” were killed during a fierce shootout with law enforcement. Blanco, the hotel owner and a member of the armed gang coalition “Viv Ansanm,” was the primary target of the raid following extensive surveillance.
During the operation, the Haitian National Police (PNH) apprehended 13 individuals, including three police officers and two journalists, Banatte Daniel and Richelson Cenejuste. The PNH confiscated a cache of weapons, including six firearms, 195 bullets, 15 magazines, three vehicles, seven mobile phones, a boat, and 10,250 gourdes. The arrested journalists were found in a white Toyota Land Cruiser, with additional weapons and cash seized from the vehicle.
In a related operation later in the day in the Nippes region, police intercepted a boat named “Destiny,” confiscating 5.5 kg of cocaine and 4.4 kg of marijuana. Three men—Claudy Joseph (24), Jeannot Orelien (25), and Fritzner Celaus (45)—were also detained in this drug bust. These operations underscore the PNH’s intensified crackdown on criminal activities and corruption within Haiti.
