Leader of 400 Mawozo Haitian gang pleads guilty to gun, money laundering charges

Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The self-described king of the notorious 400 Mawozo Haitian gang behind the kidnapping of 17 missionaries in 2021 has pleaded guilty to charges of running a conspiracy to smuggle guns into the Caribbean country and money laundering.

Joly Germine, 31, of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, pleaded guilty to the 48-count superseding indictment before Judge John Bates in a Washington, D.C., courtroom on Thursday at the end of the two-week trial, the Justice Department said in a statement.

He faces up to life in prison on May 15 when he is scheduled to be sentenced.

The gun charges stem from a conspiracy to purchase at least 24 firearms, including AK-47s and AR-15s and others consider military weaponry by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and have them smuggled into Haiti.

Prosecutors said Germine, who ran the gang from a Haitian prison via cell phones, conspired with his girlfriend, Eliande Tunis, 45, and two others, all of who resided in the United States, to purchase the weaponry.

Germine provided the specifics of the weapons he wanted to his co-conspirators, who then purchased the two-dozen firearms while falsely stating that they were the intended owners, according to the prosecutors.

Tunis then smuggled the firearms and ammunition to Haiti in containers disguised as food and household goods in May 2021. A second shipment of firearms that she tried to send to the Hispaniola nation in October of that same year was confiscated by the FBI before they could leave the United States.

Germine on Thursday also pleaded guilty to money laundering charges that stem from his gang's kidnapping of three U.S. citizens in the summer of 2021.

The Justice Department said the three unnamed victims were among the two dozen witnesses to testify during the trial, and they said cash ransoms for their release were transferred to the gang in Haiti from the United States via MoneyGram and Western Union, and was intended to be used to purchase more guns.

Germine's guilty plea comes about two weeks after Tunis pleaded guilty to the same 48-count indictment on the eve of the trail getting underway on Jan. 17.

"These two defendants not only helped lead a prominent violent gang in Haiti, but they were also intimately involved in arming the gang and laundering ransom proceeds the gang obtained from kidnapping Americans," U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves for the District of Columbia said in a statement.

"Preventing them from illegally shipping anymore firearms or laundering the proceeds of kidnappings strikes a critical blow against the gang they once led."

Germine was extradited to the United States in early May 2022 to face charges related to gun smuggling and kidnapping, specifically the high-profile abduction of one Canadian and 16 U.S. missionaries, including five children, of the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, in October of 2021.

The majority of the missionaries were held for 61 days when they managed to escape.

Germine has been separately indicted on kidnapping charges.