Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Haiti’s Police Chief, Mario Andresol, Wednesday, November 2, announced plans to clean up the service amid allegations of corruption, drug trafficking and other criminal activities.
Andresol said he would apply zero tolerance against all police officers involved in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder.
“We know there are policemen who chose to become kidnappers, drug traffickers and murderers,” Andresol said.
“We are going to arrest all of them and send them to jail,” the top police official told the Caribbean media Corporation (CMC).
More than 20 police officers have been arrested and placed under investigation for possible involvement in drug trafficking, kidnapping and massacres in slum strongholds of supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Authorities said the police clean up was necessary in establishing the credibility of the institution.
“If we are to effectively fight criminality in the streets, we have to give our institution a good clean-up,” Andresol said.
The police have been accused of killing and jailing supporters of the ousted president, but the US-backed interim administration has repeatedly rejected these accusations.