Haiti gang chief uses TikTok to expand control over crime-ridden capital by boasting about rape and murder to recruit more soldiers as gang violence chokes island: ‘Gonna whack them all’

A Haitian warlord has used rap videos to extend his control over the crisis-hit country as gang violence continues to choke the capital.

According to investigators, Johnson Andre, also known as Izo, used accounts on sites like TikTok to recruit foot soldiers and spread further terror in the country.

In addition to his ‘Five Seconds Gang’, Andre is responsible for distributing videos that have amazed even the most experienced officials.

On Friday, his TikTok account, which he said had 227,000 followers, was banned the Wall Street Journal.

The outlet reported that his content included him rapping about killing police officers, showing off new military-grade weapons and making fun of Haitian politicians.

Police in the country, the UN and the US government all blame Andre for some of the ongoing chaos and have accused him of murder, rape and drug smuggling.

The United Nations said in a report seen by the newspaper that its Five Seconds Gang has been the most active in recruiting child soldiers.

After being sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in December, they said his gang was responsible for 1,035 cases of sexual violence in 2022 alone.

In videos seen by the WSJ, he says, “I’m going to hit them all. I’m going to snort cocaine and kill everyone who hates me.’

In a choreographed and edited video, we also see Andre and members of his gang reenacting a thwarted police raid that left one officer dead.

Other videos shared on his X profile and viewed by DailyMail.com show gang members grabbing assault rifles and setting vehicles on fire.

His residence in the capital Port-au-Prince is also prominent, where he counts $100 bills and drinks from cognac bottles.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who researches armed groups in the Americas and Africa, said: “For others, it is a message of social justice. With Izo it is: ‘The world has gone to hell and I am the biggest devil’.

Felbab-Brown also told the outlet that his use of social media mirrors strategies that helped other organizations, including cartels, expand their footprints.

She said the videos are used to stoke fear among rivals and serve as advertisements for cocaine smugglers to use Haiti as a transit port for drug shipments.

Speaking to the WSJ, Bill O’Neill, a United Nations human rights expert on Haiti, said: ‘What is new is the brutality and public humiliation. Never seen before. Never at this level.’

O’Neill described how videos of rapes, some in the presence of family members, had been shared on the internet by gangs in Haiti.

According to a UN report that O’Neill helped write, his videos have helped attract more members to his gang, who work for food, weapons, phones and money.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the only Haitian American serving in Congress, told the WSJ after seeing the videos, “This is like a professional studio walked in.” My videos don’t look like this, and we have a team!

“It seems like they’re putting out these propaganda videos to recruit, to show how great it is to be part of the gangs.”

Nathalye Cotrino, who tracks gangs for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, added: “We see gangs acting increasingly autonomously and no longer dependent on political benefits.

“Now we have gangs that are not interested in anything politically and just continue with their criminal activities.”

Andre’s YouTube page, where he shared his music videos, was shut down last year after he received a silver plaque from the platform, causing a public outcry.

Alternative accounts are still actively sharing his content, with a YouTube spokesperson telling the outlet that they are working to shut down those channels.

A TikTok spokesperson also said, “We stand firmly against violent extremism and we work aggressively to identify and remove content and accounts that violate these rules.”

Ongoing gang violence in Haiti has forced 17,000 people in the capital from their homes, many trapped in abandoned schools.

Gunfire still rings out daily across Port-au-Prince, although gang violence has subsided in some areas since gunmen began attacking key government infrastructure on February 29.

On Saturday, Haiti’s National Police said they had recovered a hijacked cargo ship loaded with racing after a gun battle with gangs that lasted more than five hours.

Police said in the statement on Sunday that those responsible for the hijacking were members of two gangs, including the Five Seconds gang.

Gangs have burned down several police stations, opened fire on the main international airport, which remains closed, and stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 prisoners.

The ongoing violence forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce that he would resign once a transitional presidential council was formed.

Henry was in Kenya to push for the UN-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country when the attacks began and Haiti remains locked out.