Overview:
Cap-Haïtien’s city attorney released Dr. Robins Mompremier after judicial authorities determined he was not responsible for firearms and ammunition found in a container his cousin in the United States had shipped.
CAP-HAITIEN — Officials have released from jail a local doctor initially arrested on suspicion of arms trafficking after discovering firearms and ammunition in a shipping container from the United States. They said Dr. Robins Mompremier was not aware of what was inside the container sent by his cousin.
“The boxes with the weapons were not sent to the doctor,” Judge Bimps Noël, the justice of the peace handling the case, told The Haitian Times on Jan. 28. “The city attorney detained him to question him. He was only responsible for verifying the container.”
Mompremier was arrested Jan. 23 and held for four nights after customs officials found weapons inside a container shipped from the U.S. Bimps said Mompremier’s cousin, Kerly Mompremier, had shipped the container through Acoordia Shipping.
When the shipment arrived at Cap Terminal S.A. 2 in Quartier-Morin, a commune about 6 miles southeast of Cap-Haïtien, it contained packages addressed to numerous recipients. In three packages, the officials found two rifles, three pistols, 17 magazines and about 3,400 rounds of ammunition. Officials said one box also contained two Haitian passports belonging to someone named Clément Thélusma, along with his phone number and an address listed as 26 Gonaïves — raising suspicion.
Thélusma, according to Noël, had been arrested Dec. 30 at the same terminal when he arrived to retrieve a separate shipment that contained a rifle, two pistols and about 1,800 rounds of ammunition. He remains detained at the civil prison in Cap-Haïtien.
Noël added that after Thélusma’s arrest, Mompremier contacted authorities to alert them that a second box was scheduled to arrive under his name.
“Thélusma told me the weapons were meant to fight bandits in Gonaïves alongside the police,” Noël said. “But that claim should be treated with caution.”
Gang violence has surged in the Artibonite Department, where Gonaïves is located, in recent years. On Nov. 29, at least 12 people were killed and hundreds displaced in Pont-Sondé, a community near Saint-Marc.
The Jan. 23 operation that led to Mompremier’s arrest was carried out by the Anti-Drug Trafficking Brigade, along with the customs surveillance brigade at Cap Terminal. Authorities also conducted a separate arms trafficking operation in Quartier-Morin earlier this month.
“We have to do everything possible to curb this,” Noël said. “U.S. authorities, in particular, need to strengthen inspections before containers are shipped to Haiti.”
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