The leader of a notorious gang that terrorized residents of Haiti’s largest slum is dead following a security operation involving explosive drones, the latest development in an intensifying campaign against the tightening grip of the country’s powerful armed groups.

“One less gang leader,” Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé wrote on X, confirming the death of Mathias Saintil, who headed the “Boston” gang that operated inside Cité Soleil.

The gang is part of Viv Ansanm, the powerful gang coalition that the Trump administration has designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and controls large swaths of the region that includes Port-au-Prince, and has been extending its reach into parts of the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite regions.

“The fight to free the country from the grip of bandits continues with determination,” Fils-Aimé said, adding in Haitian-Creole that there would be no respite for Haiti’s criminal gangs.

Saintil’s death comes as security forces ramp up operations against armed gangs amid an increasingly crowded landscape involving five separate forces whose overlapping missions have raised questions about coordination and command. Still, the effort appears to be putting gangs on the defensive as El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and bots taunt them on social media and security forces push deeper into their territories, forcing leaders to flee strongholds and seek refuge elsewhere.

“Looks like the gangs don’t want to fight us,” Bukele posted Wednesday on X, showing aerial video of Port-au-Prince.

The Salvadoran leader last month deployed 2,500 troops to Haiti after four of his aviation technicians, deployed under the United Nations-authorized Gang Suppression force, were ambushed by armed gangs on Oct. 18 and went missing. Although he’s hailed the mission as search-and-rescue, the buildup has raised questions about the scope of his mission and how his troops, the vast majority of which are not under the command of the GSF, are coordinating on the ground.

Still, the presence of the Salvadorans and the missing technicians have been seized upon by the security forces to intensify their operations to disrupt gangs’ control of territories. The GSF, for example, which was not part of the drone strike and has often had to de-conflict upon learning that another operation is ensuing, has increased its presence in the capital.

Meanwhile, the drone task force is taking advantage of both the GSF and Salvadoran presence to ramp up efforts against gangs. Two weeks ago, as the GSF carried out search operations for the missing Salvadorans in the Cul-de-Sac plain, the drone task force seized on the opportunity to go after one of the country’s more notorious gang leaders.

As the international forces carried out ground operations, the drone task force and Haitian police pushed their way into territory controlled by the head of the 400 Mawozo gang, Wilson Joseph, who is better known as Lanmò San Jou. The task force, which operates out of the prime minister’s office alongside Haitian police, is supported by Vectus Global, the private security company founded by former Navy SEAL and Blackwater founder Erik Prince.

Taking advantage of the operations in the area, the task force unit then bombed the gang leader’s home. The gang leader survived the attack and has since gone into hiding while appealing to the U.N. for peace talks.

“Following task force operations in La Plaine du Cul-de-Sac and Croix-des-Missions, Wilson Joseph, the leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, known as Lanmò San Jou, is reportedly currently in the locality of Thor 65, in the commune of Carrefour,” the National Human Rights Defense Network said.

The human rights group said he reportedly received help from Chrisla “Krisla” Chéry, the leader of the Ti Bwa gang, who transported him in his vehicle.

Members of 400 Mawozo have been accused of providing backup to members of the Chen Mechan gang during the ambush of the Salvadoran technicians. The men were returning to their base from a supermarket when armed gang members surrounded their armored white Toyota SUV in Santo, Croix-des-Bouquets area and opened fire. The heavily armed gang members then used an explosive device to set the vehicle ablaze.

While the Armed Forces of El Salvador said the men survived the attack, Wilson has claimed they were killed by Chen Mechan members. With the men missing, Bukele deployed his troops to Haiti, where residents in some neighborhoods have taken to the streets to show their support.

In the case of Saintil, there are differing accounts as to how he died. Haiti National Police, which issued a statement after the prime minister’s post, attributed the death to the gang leader being “struck by multiple gunshots” during a police operation and later dying at a hospital in the capital.

The National Human Rights Defense Network, however, said Saintil, who is widely known as “Mathias,” was fatally wounded when an explosive drone was deployed between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday in the area commonly known as Nan Nélio. The drone struck the gang leader’s home and one of his vehicles. He was sitting inside the vehicle and on his way to a street party in another part of the slum, Pierre-Six, where a separate drone strike also killed several other gang members and civilians.

Saintil suffered abdominal injuries and was taken to a hospital in Canaan, another gang-controlled area of the capital, when he died around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, the human rights group said. A photo obtained by The Miami Herald shows the vehicle lit up in flames.

No less than seven Kamikaze drones were deployed during the coordinated police operations, targeting different gangs’ strongholds on Thursday, the human rights group said. Drones were dropped in the administrative districts, or communes, of Tabarre, Croix-des-Missions, Santo, Cité Soleil, and La Plaine du Cul-de-Sac. Also targeted were areas of several localities of Cité Soleil, including Pierre-Six, Damien, Sarthe, and the area in Nan Nélio controlled by Saintil.

Saintil, according to the National Human Rights Network, was reportedly taken first to a hospital in Belécourt, then transferred to another facility in the Canaan area. Arrangements were reportedly underway to transfer him to a hospital in the commune of Carrefour, the report said when he died.

The incident reportedly killed five of his armed gang members immediately, while around 15 others were injured. Two of those injured had one foot amputated. The injured members of armed groups in these different localities were reportedly taken to healthcare facilities in Marin, Belécourt, or Canaan.

A pickup truck carrying 15 armed gang members affiliated with Ti Gabriel, the gang leader of Brooklyn, who were heading to reinforce Saintil, was intercepted by task force members. During the operation, five of them were shot and killed, six were injured, and the others fled. The human rights group also noted that the drone attacks have also led to the deaths of civilians.

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