AUTHORITIES in the Dominican Republic said on Tuesday that they seized 36,000 cartridges, 23 firearms and more than two-dozen rifle and pistol chargers from a Miami shipment destined for Haiti.

Agents also confiscated a submachine gun and a charger for a .50-calibre rifle, according to a statement from the Dominican customs office.

Officials said the investigation is ongoing and that they are working with agencies including the United States Department of Homeland Security. 

The seizures come as gang violence in neighbouring Haiti surges across the capital, Port-au-Prince, forcing 25,000 people to flee in the past two weeks, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Last year, more than 5,600 people were reported killed across Haiti, with gang violence leaving more than one million people homeless in recent years, according to the United Nations.

Illegal firearms were blamed for a record number of killings in the Caribbean last year.

An estimated 90 per cent of weapons used in the region were smuggled in from the US, according to its officials.

On Tuesday, police in Jamaica said they charged a truck driver from Columbus, Georgia, with trafficking prohibited weapons after agents on the island seized 66 firearms and more than 4,500 rounds of ammunition at a port in the capital, Kingston, last month.