US jury convicts once powerful Haitian gang leader in kidnapping of US missionaries

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A U.S. jury has found a once powerful Haitian gang leader guilty of organizing the kidnapping of 16 U.S. citizens in 2021 and holding them hostage for more than two months.

Germine Joly, whom authorities said led the 400 Mawozo gang in Haiti, will be sentenced later this year following Friday’s conviction at a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C.

Joly, who has denied involvement with the gang, was sentenced to 35 years in prison last year after pleading guilty to weapons smuggling and the laundering of ransom related to the mass kidnapping.

Haitian police arrested Joly in 2014, and he was sentenced to life in prison in 2018. Authorities said he still directed gang operations from prison, including the October 2021 kidnapping of 16 Americans, including five children, and a Canadian who worked with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries. The children were ages 6 and 3 and 8 months old.

The gang initially demanded $1 million each for the hostages or, alternatively, the release of Joly from prison. The first hostages were released in November 2021, with a $350,000 ransom eventually paid for the release of the remaining captives.

The Haitian government extradited Joly in 2022.

Joly, known as “Yonyon,” was co-leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, which translates roughly to “400 simpletons.” It controls part of Croix-des-Bouquets, a neighborhood in the eastern region of the Port-au-Prince capital and surrounding areas. The gang also operates along a route that connects the capital with the border city of Jimaní in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

The gang is still led by Joseph Wilson, best known as “Lanmò San Jou,” which means “death has no date,” and it is an ally of G-Pep, a gang federation that is now part of a powerful gang coalition known as “Viv Ansanm.”