PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 14 (UPI) -- The United Nations said a Haitian gang leader -- the target of a U.N.-backed crackdown on violent crime in Port-au-Prince -- has been captured.
The U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym of MINUSTAH, said the reputed gang leader, known as Evens or Ti Kouto, was captured by Haitian national police in Les Cayes, a southern town, and transferred with the world organization's logistical assistance back to the capital city .
MINUSTAH said he fled the anti-gang operations in the capital's Cite Soleil neighborhood, one of the country's most dangerous violent areas. Many of his suspected underlings and weapons caches were seized.
The U.N. mission "warmly welcomed" the arrest and congratulated national police for determination in tracking down Evens after he eluded several sweeps by U.N. peacekeepers and police in Cite Soleil, including his home turf in the Boston quarter, since the first of the year.
MINUSTAH, set up in 2004 to help re-establish peace in the impoverished Caribbean country after an insurgency forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to go into exile, together with local police, captured scores of suspects during the crackdown, seized arsenals of weapons and ammunition, and restored badly needed health, medical and water services to the local population.
Peacekeepers said they rehabilitated schools the gangs used as headquarters, turned their hangouts into social service centers and built facilities for a population that has suffered from years of gun violence and extortion.
