Haiti gang leader back on trial in US, this time for missionaries' 2021 kidnapping
The one-time 'king' of one of Haiti's most violent criminal gang, already looking at spending 35 years in a U.S. prison for his role in a gunrunning conspiracy that funneled high-powered weapons to gang members using kidnapping proceeds, will soon learn if he will face more prison time in the United States for his alleged role in the abduction of 17 Christian missionaries, including five children.
Germine Joly, better known as 'Yonyon,' who served as leader of the 400 Mawozo gang in Port-au-Prince, was sentenced last year after pleading guilty to a 48-count indictment related to weapons smuggling and money laundering.
For the last week, he's been back on trial in front of the same federal judge, John D. Bates, inside a Washington, D.C., courtroom, charged with 16 counts of hostage taking. On Wednesday, closing arguments are expected in the case where federal prosecutors accuse Joly of targeting the group in order to use them as a bargaining chip to win his release from a Haitian prison, from where he conducted arms purchases and ran kidnappings and extortion rackets.
The incident involves the 2021 abduction of 16 U.S. citizens and a Canadian national with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries. Missionaries working in Haiti, the group was taken at gunpoint after returning from visiting an orphanage on the outskirts of Haiti's capital. At the time, Joly was leader of 400 Mawozo, a post he held from August 2020 through May 2022.
Unfolding three months after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, the brazen abduction thrust 400 Mawozo into the global spotlight and showed how even foreigners, long isolated from Haiti's vexing crises, were no longer immune from the violence. The gang demanded $1 million per hostage before they were eventually let go after an undisclosed ransom amount was paid. Their release was made to look like an escape by 400 Mawozo co-leader Lanmò Sanjou, aka Joseph Wilson.
The decision caused a rift between Lanmò Sanjou and Joly, and temporarily weakened the gang, which has since emerged as a powerful force inside the Viv Ansanm coalition that has been wreaking havoc across Port-au-Prince.
In the run-up to the trial, Joly tried to get the kidnapping charges dismissed, arguing that he was illegally extradited to the U.S. by Haitian authorities and the kidnapping accusations were not part of the extradition request. He also tried to suppress information at his trial, including his previous role in the kidnapping of several U.S. citizens in the summer of 2021, his leadership role in 400 Mawozo's kidnapping-for-guns scheme and his imprisonment in Haiti.
The kidnappings, prosecutors say, were part of a conspiracy by Joly and 400 Mawozo that 'provided the gang with proceeds that they transferred to the United States in order to purchase weapons,' which the gang then used to take more hostages.
As part of the scheme, prosecutors say Joly instructed Lanmò Sanjou on the gangs' hostage-taking operations, and ransoms paid to Lanmò Sanjou were eventually sent to Joly. He then directed the gang's bookkeepers on how to disburse the proceeds.
Bates, who presided over Joly's previous trial, agreed to keep the jury from hearing the exact count — 48 — of Joly's previous charges. However, he declined to dismiss the case and agreed to allow the government to admit evidence related to 400 Mawozo's structure, organization and 2021 hostage takings. Bates also allowed the government to present evidence showing how Joly was the 'primary facilitator' of the gang's kidnappings-for-guns scheme: Joly not only chose which weapons that associates in Florida bought, he oversaw the purchase of at least 24 semi-automatic firearms in Florida between March and November 2021 for shipment to 400 Mawozo
In the case of the missionaries, federal prosecutors contend that during the two months most of them were being held hostage, 400 Mawozo members 'made ransom demands or negotiated ransom with representatives' of the 16 Americans on at least 18 occasions.
'The gang also made repeated threats about the necessity of the ransom payments, claiming they would kill or stop feeding the hostages absent payment,' the court document says.
The idea that the hostages were a bargaining chip for Joly's release from prison was also repeated throughout the two-month ordeal, prosecutors say.
For example, after Joly had authorized the release of two hostages for medical reasons, he instructed the gang that 'no additional hostages would be released unless (he) was released from prison.'
Joly has argued that the U.S. tricked the Haitian government into extraditing him and that its 'outrageous conduct' violated his due process. He also argued that there is no evidence that the Haitian government held a hearing or other judicial inquiry to ensure his extradition was in line with any treaty with the U.S.
U.S. authorities said Joly wasn't extradited under a treaty and instead was transferred by Haitian authorities through 'deportation, expulsion, or any other lawful means.'
___
© 2025 Miami Herald.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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