‘King’ of Notorious Haitian Gang Pleads Guilty to Gun Smuggling and Money Laundering
WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says the “King” of a violent Haitian gang, who pleaded guilty to gun smuggling and money laundering charges could face up to life imprisonment when he is sentenced on May 15.
Joly Germine, 31, of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, the self-described “King” of a notoriously violent Haitian gang known as 400 Mawozo, pleaded guilty earlier this week to his role in a gunrunning conspiracy that smuggled firearms to Haiti in violation of US export laws, and the laundering of ransoms paid for US hostages to the gang in 2021.
The conspiracy resulted in the purchase in the United States of at least 24 firearms, including AK-47s, AR-15s, an M4 Carbine rifle, an M1A rifle, and a .50 caliber rifle, described by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as a military weapon, which were smuggled from the United States to the gang in Haiti for their criminal activities, the DOJ said.
It said co-defendant Eliande Tunis, 45, of Pompano Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty on January 17 to the same offenses.
“Mr. Germain, a leader of a notorious Haitian gang, admitted to an illegal gun-running scheme to arm fellow gang members with U.S. firearms in support of the group’s violent crime spree across Haiti, including the alleged 2021 kidnapping of 14 US citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“The Justice Department will aggressively pursue every tool at its disposal to hold accountable those who would smuggle US-origin weapons and other controlled goods for the benefit of malicious actors and their criminal enterprises,” he added.
US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew M. Graves,” said “violent gangs have ravaged Haiti; and, all too often, Americans in Haiti have been targets of their violence.
“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.
“Preventing them from illegally shipping anymore firearms or laundering the proceeds of kidnappings strikes a critical blow against the gang they once led,” he added.
Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, Jeffrey B. Veltri said “violent, well-armed gangs pose an ongoing threat to US Citizens who live in or travel to Haiti.
“As Joly Germine and Eliande Tunis have just learned, the FBI is dedicated to disrupting and dismantling gangs who undertake hostage-taking of US Citizens anywhere. This includes taking away their ability to wreak violence on the innocent using smuggled firearms.”
The DOJ said the plea came at the end of the US government’s case during trial, after the testimony of 24 witnesses and two weeks of evidence.
Germine pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the District of Columbia before Judge John D. Bates to the 48-count second superseding indictment.
The DOJ said the indictment charged Germine with conspiring to violate US export control laws and to defraud the United States, violating export control laws, smuggling, and laundering the proceeds of ransoms paid to free US hostages taken by the gang and laundering money to promote his crimes.
He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on May 15.
The DOJ said Germine’s co-defendant and former girlfriend, Tunis, who styled herself as his “wife” and was described at trial as the “Queen”, pleaded guilty on the eve of trial on January 17, to the same 48-count indictment.
The DOJ said she also faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced on May 8.
Another co-defendant, Jocelyn Dor, 31, who acted as a straw gun purchaser for Germine and Tunis, previously pleaded guilty on October 30, 2023, and will be sentenced on February 28, the DOJ said.
According to evidence presented at trial, from at least March through November 2021, Germine, Tunis, and two co-defendants conspired with each other and with other gang members in Haiti to acquire and supply firearms to the 400 Mawozo gang in Haiti.
The DOJ said Germine directed the gang’s operations from a Haitian prison using unmonitored cell phones, including directing gang members in Haiti to transfer money to Tunis and others in the United States for the purpose of obtaining firearms for the gang.
Germine then provided Tunis and the two other US-based co-defendants, all Florida residents, specifications for firearms and ammunition that Germine and other gang leaders wanted sent to Haiti.
The DOJ said Tunis and the two co-defendants then purchased at least 24 rifles, handguns, and a shotgun at Florida gun shops while falsely stating that they were the “actual buyers” of the firearms, when they were in fact acting as straw purchasers for Germine.
In about May 2021, the DOJ said Tunis smuggled firearms and ammunition to Haiti in containers disguised as food and household goods.
In October 2021, the DOJ said Tunis shipped additional firearms and ammunition to Haiti, again by smuggling the firearms, but those firearms were seized by the FBI before they left the United States.
The DOJ said 400 Mawozo is a violent Haitian gang that operated in the Croix-des-Bouquets area to the east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. From at least January 12, 2020, it said 400 Mawozo was engaged in armed hostage takings of US citizens in Haiti for ransom.
The DOJ said the victims have generally been forced from their vehicles at gunpoint and kept in various locations by armed gang members while their relatives and colleagues negotiate payment for their release.
At trial, the DOJ said the US Government presented evidence that the gang received ransom payments from the hostage-taking of three US citizens in the summer of 2021, who testified at trial, and “the cash ransom proceeds were commingled with the gang’s funds and transferred via MoneyGram and Western Union from the United States to Haiti to buy more firearms.”
In 2021, the DOJ said 400 Mawozo gang claimed responsibility for taking 16 US citizens hostage, including five children, and one Canadian citizen who were part of a missionary organization visiting an orphanage in Port-au-Prince.
The gang demanded a ransom of one million US dollars for each hostage, the DOJ said.
The hostages were all released or had escaped by on or about December 16, 2021.
The DOJ said this case does not address those hostage-taking charges for which Germine has been separately indicted.
