Gang leader sentenced to life in U.S. for 2021 abduction of American missionaries

A Haitian gang leader was sentenced to life in federal prison for directing the 2021 abduction of 16 American missionaries in Haiti, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The sentence was handed down on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., where 34-year-old Joly Germine of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, received life without the possibility of supervised release. Germine was convicted by a federal jury on May 16 of conspiracy to commit hostage taking and 16 counts of hostage taking of a U.S. national for ransom, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

Germine, also known as “Yonyon,” was the former leader of the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo. Prosecutors said he directed the 2021 kidnapping while imprisoned in Haiti, using unmonitored cell phones to communicate with gang members.

Prosecutors said 400 Mawozo operated in the Croix-des-Bouquets area outside Port-au-Prince, where its members stopped a group of 17 missionaries from Christian Aid Ministries, an Ohio-based organization, on October 16, 2021.

The missionaries were returning from visiting an orphanage when armed gang members blocked their vehicle, robbed them, and moved them to a remote building, demanding a ransom of $1 million per hostage.

“The missionary group included 12 adults and five young children, including a 6-year-old, 3-year-old, and an 8-month-old. Sixteen of the victims were U.S. citizens from Christian Aid Ministries,” U.S. Attorney Pirro said. “This sentencing makes clear that Germine’s scheme to win freedom for himself by using Christians as pawns backfired.”

Court records show the gang threatened to kill the hostages if payment was not made and later said they would accept Germine’s release from prison in exchange for the missionaries’ freedom. Two hostages were released in November 2021 due to medical concerns, and three more were freed in early December after the gang received a $350,000 ransom payment.

Prosecutors said the remaining hostages escaped on December 16, 2021, walking through rural terrain for several hours until they reached safety. FBI personnel deployed to Haiti received them and arranged immediate transport out of the country. Most of the group had been held for 62 days.

Germine had already been sentenced in June 2024 to 35 years in federal prison for his role in a gun trafficking scheme that funneled weapons to Haiti in violation of U.S. export laws and for laundering ransom proceeds collected from earlier hostage cases.