5 Seconds (5 Segonn) is one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs. Based in Village De Dieu, a shantytown on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince, the gang exerts control over key transport routes, including large swaths of Haiti’s western coast and the RN-2 highway that connects the capital to the southern departments.
5 Segonn’s strategic location allows it to play an outsized role in drugs and arms trafficking, which amplifies its economic power. The gang also has a history of hijacking freight shipments coming into Port-au-Prince by road and sea. Members of the group are implicated in crimes including murder, sexual violence, kidnapping, piracy, extortion, theft, and obstruction of humanitarian assistance.
Johnson Andre, alias “Izo,” is the leader of 5 Seconds. Born in 1997, he remains one of the youngest gang leaders in Haiti. Under his leadership, the gang has cultivated a flexible set of alliances that increased its territorial control. In 2023, the United Nations estimated that 5 Seconds had 300 members, making it one of the largest gangs in Haiti.
History
5 Seconds’ early history is murky, though many members were originally part of Haiti’s so-called baz movement.
Baz was a loose reference to groups who were part vigilantes, part political resistance, and part community organizations. They were rooted in the resistance to the dictatorship of the Duvalier family, which had ruled Haiti since 1957. In 1986, Jean-Claude Duvalier was ousted from power, and the country started a rocky transition to democracy.
The baz, in all its manifestations, remained. New political parties, movements, and leaders leaned on them to rally support, provide security, and attack rivals. Among these leaders was Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first president elected after the fall of the dictatorship, who was ousted, then resumed his presidency and was later reelected for a second term.
During his second period in office, Aristide increasingly turned to the baz, which he used to organize politically and rally supporters, but also to intimidate opposition through violence, including forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. He was ousted in a coup in 2004, but the baz, again, remained, and began their steady transformation into the armed groups and gangs that exist in Haiti today.
In the period between Aristide’s ousting and today, the gangs have remained important mercenaries and organizers for various political parties and leaders, but as the country has unraveled, they have also increasingly become agents of their own destinies.
5 Seconds is an example of this. Its rapid rise to prominence came after the 2021 murder of President Jovenel Moïse. Analysts consider his assassination as a key turning point, when many of the country’s criminal groups, including 5 Seconds, stopped being the puppets of Haiti’s political and economic elite and developed the autonomy to forge ahead on their own path.
The gang has made little pretense of portraying itself as a community organization, preferring instead to post videos on social media flaunting high-caliber weapons, attacking civilians and the police, and openly engaging in drugs and arms trafficking.
5 Seconds is believed to have a prominent role in drug and arms trafficking, setting it apart from other Haitian gangs, which focus mainly on kidnapping and extortion. The strategic coastal location of Village de Dieu base allows the group to import drugs directly from South America to its headquarters, according to sources consulted by the United Nations.
5 Seconds’ involvement in these economies has given the gang resources to build a formidable armory of military-grade weapons, as well as establish an ostentatious headquarters in the center of Village de Dieu.
Videos posted on social media showed the group brandishing FN FAL rifles, a high-caliber weapon commonly used by military forces in Latin America. In April 2024, a weapons inspection in two Colombian military bases revealed that large quantities of arms, bullets, and even missiles had gone missing, raising fears that leaks from military stockpiles were fuelling gang violence in Haiti, though a link between the missing weapons and Haitian criminal groups has yet to be definitively drawn.
5 Seconds has increasingly presented itself as a paramilitary force, and gang members have started calling themselves as “Unité Village de Dieu Tactical Corps” (Village de Dieu Tactical Corps Unit). Videos posted on social media show Izo accompanied by masked gang members posing in military uniforms emblazoned with a new tactical corps shield claimed by the gang.
5 Seconds has also become sophisticated in thwarting threats posed by law enforcement. Gang members listen in on police radio frequencies, which remain unencrypted. What’s more, videos posted on social media appear to show Izo observing police operations live-streamed to his laptop from drones controlled by the group.
The gang has built wharves along the coast of its base in Village de Dieu, allowing it to transport weapons and engage in acts of piracy. In one incident in April 2024, masked gang members hijacked a cargo ship carrying essential food supplies, looted 10,000 bags of rice, kidnapped the crew, and killed the captain.
The group’s control of RN-2, a highway that passes Village de Dieu, has also allowed 5 Seconds to hijack freight trucks, charge extortion, and identify further kidnapping for ransom victims.
The group is also known for using sexual violence as a terror tactic. In 2022 alone, at least 1,035 cases of sexual violence were reported by survivors and attributed to members of 5 Seconds, according to sanction documents from the US Treasury.
Leadership
Andre Johnson, alias “Izo”, a brutal warlord with a penchant for rap, leads 5 Seconds and uses social media platforms, including YouTube and TikTok, to project power and terrorize civilians, rival gangs, and law enforcement.
His songs and videos are highly effective at spreading propaganda for 5 Seconds, despite efforts by social media companies to clamp down on his accounts. Videos posted by Izo typically show the gangster rapping about killing police, ridiculing Haitian politicians, inciting violence, re-enacting street battles, and flaunting high-powered weaponry and equipment.
In 2023, YouTube infamously awarded Izo a “Silver Creator Award,” after he surpassed 100,000 subscribers. While YouTube later banned Izo, his videos frequently appear on other accounts on the platform. In April 2024, TikTok shut down an account with more than 227,000 followers allegedly belonging to the warlord.
Izo’s flair for social media serves multiple purposes for 5 Seconds. Analysts consulted by InSight Crime suggested that the gang uses online platforms to attract new recruits, and menace rival gangs and law enforcement, allowing 5 Seconds to present itself to international criminal groups as a dominant power in Haiti.
In a largely symbolic announcement, the United Nations Security Council sanctioned Izo for his role in “activities that threaten the peace, security, and stability of Haiti, including rape, burglary, despoliation, kidnapping, drug trafficking and trafficking of weapons” in December 2023.
Emanuel Solomon, alias “Manno” is second-in-command of 5 Seconds. Manno is on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for his alleged role in kidnapping a US citizen for ransom in 2021.
Geography
5 Seconds’ stronghold, Village de Dieu, is on the southern outskirts of Port-au-Prince. The location gives the gang a strategic foothold on Haiti’s Western coast and access to RN-2, a key highway that links the south of the country to the capital.
Access to the coast allows the gang to trade with other criminal groups, bypassing territory controlled by rival groups and avoiding the purview of law enforcement. It also allows 5 Seconds to attack and loot ships arriving at the cargo terminals in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s busiest port.
Lack of control over the coast remains a weakness for Haitian law enforcement. The Haitian Coast Guard in 2023 had just 181 officers and a single vessel to patrol 1,771 kilometers of coastline, according to a UN report.
UN officials also believe that drugs have been shipped directly from South America to Village de Dieu, indicating that 5 Seconds may have used its privileged access to the coast to build relationships with international drug trafficking organizations.
Allies and Enemies
While part of Haiti’s G-Pèp, one of the country’s two main gang alliances, Izo has long maintained commercial relations with criminal groups both inside and outside the alliance. While 5 Seconds’ alliances give the gang considerable national influence, it has historically attacked strategic locations far from Village de Dieu, where it encounters resistance.
In September 2023, gang members attacked Mirebalais and Saut d’Eau, two towns 30 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince, overrunning security forces. At least 12 people were killed. Self-defense groups, known in Haiti as Bwa Kale, ultimately repelled the gang and lynched eight suspected members. Izo later claimed to have ordered the attacks because “people” near the town had taken “something” from him.
Journalists later speculated that the fighting may have been a dispute over guns. Mirebalais is less than 30 kilometers from the Dominican Republic on the crossroads of Highway RN-3, RN-11 and Route 305. The Dominican Republic is a transit country for weapons smuggled to Haitian groups, primarily from the United States.
The disparate groups that together form Haiti’s Bwa Kale movement could be 5 Segonn’s most prominent enemies. Izo frequently lashes out at the self-defense groups with violence and threats posted on social media. In April 2023, members of 5 Seconds and Canaan, an allied gang, committed a massacre against alleged Bwa Kale members, killing over 100 people in the town Source-Matelas, a seaside village.
While officially part of Haiti’s G-Pèp gang alliance, pacts between gangs in Haiti are mercurial. In 2024, G-Pèp and former rivals, G9 and Family, formed a new coalition, Viv Ansam (Living Together). Together, they increased attacks against state institutions and contributed to the toppling of Haitian former prime minister Ariel Henry.
Prospects
5 Seconds’ strategic location, broad set of alliances, and access to lucrative criminal economies, including drugs and arms trafficking, puts it in a strong position.
The extent of 5 Seconds’ criminal activity could make it a prime target for Haitian law enforcement. However, both the Haitian National Police and the Kenyan-led Security Support Mission face chronic equipment shortages and budget constraints, meaning the gang can likely outspend and outgun security forces.
Threats to the group will more likely come from Haiti’s rival criminal organizations. 5 Seconds currently has good relations with both rival and allied gangs, in part due to the gang’s importance in drug trafficking and the illegal arms trade. However, its success in these criminal economies may encourage rival groups to compete, with the potential of sparking conflict and reducing 5 Seconds’ economic power.
Significant challenges to 5 Seconds’ power are unlikely to come in the short term, however. The gang’s strategic advantages combined with the relative weakness of law enforcement make short-term gains against 5 Seconds unlikely.