The Episcopal Church of Haiti has publicly demanded the release of its priests and lay members who remain imprisoned in connection with a 2022 arms trafficking case, despite two judicial rulings confirming their innocence — including a Court of Appeal order earlier this year directing that the detainees be freed immediately.
In a statement issued on Sunday, April 5, 2026, signed by the Rev. Samuel Saint-Louis, president of the Standing Committee, the Diocese broke nearly four years of institutional silence to declare that the Church and its clergy are “the main victims of this criminal network” and to call on Haiti’s judicial authorities to act “with all due diligence” to end what it described as unjustified detention.
Anglican Ink reported in July 2022 that agents from Haiti’s Office for the Fight against Narcotics Trafficking (BLTS), accompanied by customs officers, had seized four containers consigned to the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti at the port of La Saline in Port-au-Prince. Inside, investigators found 18 Russian AK-47 rifles, an M4 carbine, an Israeli Galil assault rifle, a shotgun, four pistols, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and $50,000 in counterfeit American currency — all concealed within goods labelled as relief supplies.
The diocese immediately denied any involvement. In a statement issued July 14, 2022, the Standing Committee said that only its president was authorised to request customs exemptions and that he had not done so. “If therefore individuals present themselves at customs to recover containers in the name of the Episcopal Church, it can only be false documents used by criminal networks,” the statement read.
Anglican Ink subsequently reported in August 2022 that the Rev. Frantz Cole, the diocesan executive secretary, had been arrested in connection with the seizure. The diocesan accountant, Jean Gilles Jean Mary, was also taken into custody after Le Nouvelliste reported he had signed multiple documents between 2017 and 2021 authorising the transfer of diocesan funds to an international arms trafficker wanted by police. The Rev. Jean Mardochée Vil, then the Standing Committee president, had voluntarily cooperated with investigators but later discovered a warrant had been issued against him.
The Rev. Fritz Désiré, a former Standing Committee president, was arrested in May 2023. Lay member Mamion Saint-Germain was also detained. The weapons were reportedly destined for the Kraze Barye gang, whose leader, Vitel’homme Innocent, was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
The conspiracy is alleged to have reached into the Haitian government itself. Johnny Docteur, a senior aide to Haiti’s Economy and Finance Minister, was charged as a key orchestrator of the scheme. He remains a fugitive. The religious customs exemption — which reduces scrutiny of shipments addressed to churches and aid organisations — made the Episcopal Diocese an attractive cover for traffickers seeking to move weapons quickly through Haitian ports.
On September 29, 2023, investigating judge Marthel Jean Claude dismissed charges against the Revs. Désiré, Cole, and Vil, along with lay employees Jean Gilles Jean Mary and Mamion Saint-Germain. The judge found that the Church’s customs exemption had been exploited without its knowledge and that officials’ signatures on the relevant documents were forgeries. Charges were brought against eleven other individuals.
The prosecution appealed. On February 2, 2026, the Port-au-Prince Court of Appeal upheld the exoneration, ruling that all documents produced in the Church’s name were entirely fabricated — the work of a criminal network that had forged diocesan officials’ signatures to exploit the Church’s customs franchise for personal gain. The Court again ordered the release of all detained Church members. More than three months later, they remain behind bars.
In its April 5 statement, the Standing Committee also addressed allegations of personal enrichment, noting that an asset investigation of the detained clergy found they “live simply, faithful to their mission of service,” directly contradicting media suggestions of unexplained wealth.
The Church also pointed to a striking act of witness during the chaos of March 2–3, 2024, when armed gangs stormed the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince and thousands of detainees fled. The priests and lay members remained. “This constitutes proof of their confidence in the justice of their country,” the statement said. “Innocent people always believe that justice will ultimately rule in their favor.”
The Church’s public statement came days after a significant development in the criminal investigation. On March 26, 2026, the DCPJ arrested Vundla Sikhumbuzo, a Zimbabwean national who had been a fugitive for seven years. Sikhumbuzo had served as the Diocese of Haiti’s Director of Operations from 2011, managing post-earthquake relief and recovery programmes, until his dismissal in 2018 following allegations that he had attacked his wife in an acid attack. He faces charges including arms and ammunition trafficking, attempted murder, criminal association, and the unlawful confinement of three children. Another suspect, Renel Louis, had been arrested the previous week.
Pastor Dieune Day, identified as an alleged ringleader, was arrested in the Dominican Republic in December 2024 and extradited to Haiti.
Human rights attorney Samuel Madistin, who represents the Episcopal Church, has argued that the judicial process has been manipulated to protect the scheme’s actual architects, with the Church cast as scapegoat. Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) previously identified then-chief Port-au-Prince prosecutor Jacques Lafontant as having allegedly sought to manage suspect testimony to shield Haitian government figures; Lafontant was among dozens of judges and prosecutors subsequently expelled by the Haitian Supreme Court for alleged corruption.
The Diocese of Haiti, the largest in The Episcopal Church with more than 97,000 baptised members, has been without a diocesan bishop since Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin resigned in 2017. The Standing Committee has served as its ecclesiastical authority throughout the period covered by the arms case.
The prosecution of Church personnel has unfolded against the backdrop of Haiti’s wider collapse: gang violence controls much of Port-au-Prince, the government has been in chronic crisis since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, and the country has no functioning parliament.
Founded in Haiti in 1861, the Episcopal Church of Haiti is a constituent member of the Anglican Communion. The Standing Committee’s April 5 statement called on human rights organisations, the Haitian population, and the national and international press to press for compliance with the court orders. Its conclusion was brief and direct: “The truth must prevail. Justice must be done. The innocent must be released.”