Haitian gang leader known for kidnapping Americans for ransom gets 35 years

June 25 (UPI) -- Joly Germine, the self-anointed king of the 400 Mawozo Haitian gang responsible for the high-profile kidnapping of American missionaries in 2021, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for smuggling U.S. weapons to the Hispaniola nation and money laundering ransom payments.

The 31-year-old of Coix-des-Bouquets was sentenced to 420 months in prison on Monday after pleading guilty in late January to a 42-count superseding indictment, charging him with running a gun smuggling conspiracy and laundering ransom payments received in exchange for the release of three Americans his gang held hostage in the summer of 2021.

"The leaders of violent gangs in Haiti that terrorize Americans citizens in order to fuel their criminal activity will be met with the full force of the Justice Department," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement .

The 400 Mawozo gang made international headlines in the fall of 2021 when they kidnapped 17 missionaries -- 16 Americans and one Canadian -- of the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries organization. The gang has been taking Americans hostage in Haiti and holding them for ransom since at least January 2020.

According to the Justice Department, the gang forced its U.S. targets from vehicles at gunpoint and held its captives in various locations as they sought ransom payments from friends and relatives.

Germine pleaded guilty following a trial that included 24 witnesses, including the three Americans his gang had taken hostage in the summer of 2021. The unidentified victims testified that cash ransoms paid for their release were combined with the gang's funds and transferred via MoneyGram and Western Union from the United States to Haiti. That money was then used to further the gang's purchase of weapons that they smuggled from the United States to Haiti, according to federal prosecutors.

The gun smuggling conspiracy Germine pleaded guilty to running resulted in 24 firearms, including weapons designed for the military, AK-47s, AR-15s, an M4 Carbine rifle and others, being illegally moved from the United States to the Hispaniola nation.

Germine led the operation from a Haitian jail with the use of unmonitored cell phones, evidence at trial showed. He directed gang members to transfer money to others in the United States to buy firearms and even provided them with a list of weapons he wanted and ammunition.

Germine's source in the United States was U.S. citizen and Florida resident Eliande Tunis. Tunis 46, of Pompano Beach, Fla., was Germine's girlfriend and the Justice Department described her as having styled herself as the wife and queen to 400 Mawozo's king.

Tunis along with two other co-conspirators, purchased the weaponry from Florida gun shops while claiming they were buying them for themselves.

Shen then smuggled the 24 firearms along with ammunition in containers disguised as food and household goods to Haiti in May 2021. A second shipment of weaponry she attempted to smuggle in October that same year was seized by the FBI.

Similar to her boyfriend, Tunis pleaded guilty in January to the same indictment and was sentenced to 150 months in prison earlier this month.

Jocelyn Dor, 31, and Walder St. Louis, 35, were convicted of being straw gun purchasers for the gang, with Dor being sentenced to five years' imprisonment in late February. St. Louis has also been sentenced to three years.

Germine was extradited to the United States from Haiti in May of 2022.

"As Joly Germine and Eliande Tunis have just learned, the FBI is dedicated to disrupting and dismantling gangs who undertake hostage-taking of U.S. citizens anywhere," FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office said in a statement Monday.

"This includes taking away their ability to wreak violence on the innocent using smuggled firearms."

Though this case is complete, Germine still faces charges in connection to the kidnapping of the missionaries, the majority of whom were held hostage by the gang for 61 days.

The indictment accuses him of running the operation again from jail -- where he had been since 2018 -- and had demanded $1 million for the release of the missionaries who were in the country building an orphanage.

The gang had released five of the hostages, with the remaining 12 managing to escape to safety mid-December. Five children, including a 10-month-old baby, were among the gang's captives.