Haitian crime boss sentenced to 35 years for gun smuggling

Joly Germine, the leader of Haiti’s 400 Mawozo gang, received a sentence of 35 years in prison on Monday for his role in a gun-smuggling conspiracy.

He pleaded guilty at the end of his trial earlier this year on 48 charges, according to a statement by the Justice Department. He had been captured by Haitian police in 2014 and sentenced to life in prison by a local judge in 2018. Eliande Tunis, who prosecutors said styled herself as Germaine’s wife or queen, earlier this month received more than 12 years in prison for her role in the conspiracy. She pleaded guilty the day before the trial began. Two other conspirators, Jocelyn Dor and Walder St. Louis, pleaded guilty, and received five and three-year sentences, respectively.

The 400 Mawozo gang, which operates in an area just east of Port-au-Prince, is notorious for kidnappings. It purchased firearms in the United States with ransom money it received from taking U.S. citizens captive. The gang shipped the firearms to Haiti illegally, according to the Justice Department. The arms included assault-style weapons such as AK-47s and AR-15s and M4 and M1A rifles, the Justice Department said.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, Firearms, and Explosives Director Steven Dettelbach emphasized the harms of gunrunning. Once guns make their way to Haiti, they often end up in the hands of gangs that use them to harm Haitian citizens and American citizens, he said.

How exactly did this conspiracy come together? While he was serving time in prison in Haiti in 2021, Joly Germine had access to unmonitored cell phones, according to the U.S. Justice Department. He told gang members in Haiti to transfer money to co-conspirators Eliande Tunis, Jocelyn Dor, and Walder St. Louis, who were all staying in Florida. Germine then essentially ordered firearms and ammunition for the gang through the trio. Tunis, Dor, and St. Louis bought two dozen firearms at Florida gun stores, saying they were buying the weapons for themselves rather than as straw buyers.

In May 2021, Tunis shipped the firearms to Haiti in food and household goods containers. When she tried to ship more firearms to 400 Mawozo members in Haiti in October, the FBI seized the weapons.

The gang got the money for these guns by taking hostages? Starting in early 2020, the 400 Mawozo gang took U.S. citizens hostage in Haiti, holding them for ransom, according to the Justice Department.

In the summer of 2021, the gang captured three Americans and held them for ransom. Prosecutors at trial presented evidence some of the cash from their ransoms made its way into the accounts that wired funds to the straw buyers in Florida.

Hasn’t WORLD covered some of these kidnappings in the past? In the fall of 2021, 400 Mawozo claimed responsibility for capturing sixteen Americans and a Canadian who were part of a missionary organization visiting an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, according to the Justice Department. Five of the hostages were children.

The gang members captured the missionaries while they were riding in a van and turning around at a roadblock. The Canadian missionary was at the wheel at the time, according to previous WORLD coverage.

After capturing the missionaries, the gang demanded $1 million per hostage as a ransom. The hostages set up an around-the-clock prayer schedule while Christians around the world did the same. During captivity gang members routinely threatened the hostages but also took pains to provide baby food for the youngest children. The gang also spent hours setting up fans to keep the missionaries from collapsing from heatstroke.

By mid-December 2021, most of the hostages had either escaped or the gang had released them, the Justice Department said. Germine faces charges in a separate court case in Washington, D.C. related to the kidnappings. The Justice Department clarified that the sentence he received on Monday bore no relation to the hostage-taking case. The hostage-taking charges are merely allegations and observers should presume him innocent of those charges until proven guilty in a court of law, the department said.

Dig deeper: Listen to Paul Butler’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how paying ransom payments for missionaries just provides more of an incentive for gangs to capture those living out the Great Commission.