Critical Haiti gas terminal freed after weeks of talks with G9 gang leader
Haiti Gas, the nation’s main supplier of natural-gas to the United States through a $3.4 billion contract, has agreed to release a Haitian government-controlled deep-water gas terminal from a controversial G-9 gang leader who had called for its destruction.
Haiti Gas President and Chief Executive Officer Fred T. Ross Jr. said he was “very pleased” that the gas company agreed to make a deal with “an international mercenary.”
Ross said the international mercenary was a member of the notorious Haitian gang with its hand out for a $500 million pay day to turn the Léogâne, a former Haitian National Police facility built with American aid money, into a deep-water gas terminal with the capacity to handle as much as 30 million cubic feet of gas per day.
The G-9 leader, an international fugitive who had wanted to profit from Haiti’s natural-gas industry, would give the “international mercenary” $2 million upon his release from prison.
The agreement was reached after an earlier one by the G-9 leader’s prison cellmate, who is now a Haitian prosecutor in Miami, a G-9 member whose name was not revealed.
The second agreement was disclosed by an attorney for the Haitian state, who said the G-9 leader, Robert M. L. Walker, agreed to turn over a $40,000 U.S. Treasury bill to the attorney.
“Walker’s release is a victory for our state,” said Attorney General Peter T. Kilmartin. “Since the beginning of the year, our state has been working through international bodies to free one of the most wanted men in the world.”
He said the negotiations have been difficult but “we did it.”
Walker, 62, the former chief of police at the Léogâne terminal, has been involved in serious criminal disputes since the 1980s after being convicted in Italy on charges of drug dealing and armed robbery.
After escaping from prison in Italy in 2003, Walker fled to Honduras where he was named deputy to the head of a drug cartel. When his arrest was widely reported, a G-9 member led
