By: Staff Writer
August 15, 2025
The United States Attorney for Washington DC issued an indictment against Haitian Gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier with a $5 million reward for Barbecue and any of his cohorts.
Barbecue, a former police officer for the Haitian National Police, is best known for establishing the Viv Ansanm gang, a coalition of gangs through an alliance between the two main gang factions operating in Port-au-Prince, G-9 and G-Pèp, according to the United Nations.
The coalition of gangs was formed to oppose the legitimate government of Haiti, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, along with ICE and state officials, held a briefing on Aug. 12 to announce the indictment of Cherizier, for his conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions and orchestrate gang violence.
“There’s a good reason that there’s a $5m reward for information leading to Cherizier’s arrest,” US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at a news conference on Tuesday.
“He’s a gang leader responsible for heinous human rights abuses, including violence against American citizens in Haiti.”
Prosecutors say he is suspected of playing a key role in the 2018 La Saline massacre, in which 71 people were killed, more than 400 houses were destroyed, and at least seven women raped.
The indictment also alleges that Mr Cherizier, as well as US citizen Bazile Richardson, 48, solicited funds from Haitian diaspora community in the US to help pay gang members and buy firearms in violation of US sanctions.
Mr Richardson, who was arrested in Texas last month, is a naturalised US citizen who grew up in Haiti, prosecutors say. He was residing in North Carolina before he was taken into custody.
Also known as Fredo, Fred Lion, Leo Danger, and Lepe Blode, he helped raise funds that were then used to pay gang leaders and purchase weapons, according to officials.
Both men helped “bankroll Cherizier’s violent criminal enterprise, which is driving a security crisis in Haiti”, said Assistant US Attorney General John Eisenberg.