Haiti’s transitional government is brokering a deal to take control of its porous border with the Dominican Republic, which has become a gateway for illegal weapons, by giving a private business control of security and tax collection.

A Haitian government official aware of the discussions confirmed to The Miami Herald that negotiations are ongoing for border control and debt collection by restructuring customs and PoliFRONT, the specialized Haitian border police unit charged with securing the 243-mile borders with the Dominican Republic, the country’s biggest trade partner.

“No contract has been signed,” said the official, disputing a Reuters story that quoted private security executive and Donald Trump supporter Erik Prince that he has signed a long-term agreement with the Haitian government.

As part of the 10-year agreement, according to the story, Prince’s company, Vectus Global, would design and carry out a program to tax goods imported across the border, which currently help funnel between $60 million to $70 million to gangs that control key transport routes.

The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said he has not seen Vectus Global’s name. However, another source said there are several companies, including Prince’s, that are vying for the border contract.

A spokesman for Vectus Global told the Herald the company has “a year-long program to help the government defeat the gangs and a longer-term role advising the government on how to restore revenue collection capabilities once the situation stabilizes. We want to help the Haitians increase their capacity to defeat these terrorist groups, get their country back, and then reinstate essential services which have been missing for the past few years.”

In addition to consulting on security issues, the company provides a range of services, the company notes, adding that a task force operating out of the prime minister’s office that is leading the response to gangs is using advice from Vectus.

But some observers see a border contract as a throwback to a bygone colonial era. Others see it as a money grab in which the country is being mortgaged in the name of fighting criminal gangs.

“This is scandalous,” said Samuel Madistin, a leading human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate. “The government that is here is provisional, corrupt and it represents the most mafia segment of the private sector. They do not have the legitimacy to engage the country in a long-term 10-year contract with a private firm in a plan of collecting taxes to reinforce security when they have never taken any forceful steps to reinforce the army, the national police to fight against gangs.”

Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé did not respond to a request for comment. The former head of the transitional council, Fritz Alphonse Jean, said the Reuters article was the first he was hearing of any such arrangement. Laurent Saint-Cyr, who took over the reins of the presidential council last week, said he was ““not aware of the signing of such a contract.”

The revelations about Prince’s business taking control of the only reliable revenue stream for the government comes on the heels of concerns over the influence the private sector exerts over the government, as members of the business community now control the presidency of the council and the prime minister’s office.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department confirmed plans to support a proposal from United Nations chief António Guterres to back the efforts of the armed international mission that’s been struggling to control the gang violence. However, observers worry that Prince’s entrance into the fray will complicate support for the Kenya-led mission because of his team’s use of weaponized drones to target Haitian gangs. There are also concerns that the presence of mercenaries in the gang fight could dissuade future efforts to scale up the current mission into a full-fledged U.N.-authorized peacekeeping force.

“While it is understandable that the Haitian government feels the needs to respond to an extreme situation with whatever alternatives are on the table, relying on a (private military contractor) for a long term plan — particularly when the details are not being shared publicly — will certainly alarm Haitian and international observers because of the history of lack of accountability from this kind of operations,” said Diego Da Rin, Haiti analyst for the International Crisis Group.

Da Rin said with funding for the Kenyan mission already uncertain, Haitian leaders might be betting that Prince will provide the support needed to at least gain some ground against the gangs.

The founder of the controversial military security company Blackwater, Prince arrived in Haiti earlier this year promising to help the country put down the with the help of former special forces soldiers and military contractors from the United States, Colombia and other nations. Haitian authorities have declined to provide details on the contract, which for one year carried a $50 million price tag, according to another government official. In addition to providing personnel, the arrangement called for the company to provide helicopters and weaponized drones.

So far, in the eight months that drones have been hitting areas of the capital, no major gang leaders have been captured or killed, although Haitian police have claimed that some gang members have died. The slaughter of Haitians and the destruction of private property by armed groups have not ceased.

People familiar with Prince’s arrival say he was introduced in Haiti by Reuven Bigio, the CEO of the GB Group, a company founded by Gilbert Bigio, an uber rich Haitian businessman who was sanctioned by Canada in 2022 along with other prominent members of the economic elite. Among the companies’ assets is the private Lafito port in Port-au-Prince, where private military are used to provide security.

In pitching his services, Prince discussed wresting control of gangs to allow major highways to reopen. HIs services would be paid for through a revenue scheme in which his company reportedly would get a percentage of the increase in collections.

The plan to secure the border with an outside business to increase customs revenue is not a novel idea. It was first raised by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Haiti Advisory Board in 2005 but quickly nixed after considerable pushback. Then Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe introduced it during the administration of President Michel Martelly, using an Israeli company. Shortly after coming to power, President Jovenel Moïse broke the contract, which had already invested $10 million.

Mark Hall, an American investment banker who worked in the Dominican Republic, has also tried to get support for a similar effort that involves installing 50 to 60 high tech surveillance towers along the border. It was expected to cost $134 million.

Hall, like other proponents of the idea, argued that it is a win for Haiti, which loses an estimated $500 million annually from contraband and the lack of control at its borders. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime has repeatedly raised concerns over the illicit trafficking of firearms and narcotics across the country’s porous border, particularly in the southern departments of Haiti. In mid-April, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights voiced similar concerns, noting that a lack of border controls have helped facilitate the smuggling of firearms into the country.

“Poor provision of security at borders and an influx of small arms and light weapons into Haiti has facilitated a resurgence” in violence in recent years, the security company Osprey said in a recent analysis. “Large, relatively unpoliced areas of Haiti are also vulnerable to security and criminal threats due to instability and porous borders.”

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