Member of infamous Haitian 400 Mawozo gang sentenced to 5 years for gun smuggling

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A Haitian national residing in the United States has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment for participating in the smuggling of 24 firearms to his native country.

Jocelyn Dor, 31, a resident of Orlando, Fla., was a member of the infamous Haitian 400 Mawozo criminal gang that was behind the kidnapping of 17 missionaries in 2021.

U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates sentenced him to 60 months behind bars and three years' supervised release on Wednesday, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Dor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate export controls and money laundering charges in late October, after prosecutors accused him of participating in a sophisticated scheme to export two dozen weapons, including semiautomatic high-powered rifles, from the United States to Haiti.

Dor was originally charged in May 2022 along with 31-year-old Joly Germine, the self-described king of the gang, and Germine's girlfriend, 44-year-old Eliande Tunis, who is a U.S. citizen.

According to court documents, Germine ran the gang from a Haitian prison via cell phones and provided the specifications to Dor and Tunis of the weapons he wanted purchased.

Dor, who operated a "straw purchaser" for the gang in the United States, purchased 10 of the high-powered rifles at gun shops in Florida over the course of a month in the fall of 2021.

Prosecutors said he lied to gun shops by stating that he was the intended owner of the firearms, while having received multiple transfers of thousands of dollars to pay for them.

After the guns were purchased, the FBI launched a manhunt for Dor that expanded across the Midwest. Aware of the search, Dor turned himself in on Nov. 8, 2021, and the FBI recovered the guns at an Orlando storage unit he rented just days earlier.

Dor has resided in police custody since.

Germine was extradited to the United States in May 2022, and pleaded guilty to running the gun smuggling conspiracy early this month and faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on May 15.

Tunis similarly pleaded guilty in January. She was accused of having smuggled guns and ammunition from the United States to Haiti in containers disguised as food and household goods in May of 2021.

The guns seized at the storage unit were described as a second shipment of firearms that Tunis was involved with.

The gang, known for running a kidnapping and ransom scheme, made international headlines in October 2021 when it kidnapped one Canadian and 16 American missionaries, including five children of the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries.

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