Haitian Gang Leader Pleads Guilty to Illegal Export Scheme
The leader of a Haitian criminal gang pleaded guilty last week to his role in smuggling firearms from the U.S. to Haiti in violation of export controls, DOJ said. Joly Germine was involved in purchases of at least 24 guns -- including K-47s, AR-15s, an M4 Carbine rifle, an M1A rifle, and a .50 caliber rifle -- for the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo.
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DOJ said Germine worked with his former girlfriend, Eliande Tunis -- who was based in Florida and pleaded guilty to similar charges last month -- to move the guns into Haiti. Germine “directed the gang’s operations” from a Haitian prison through “unmonitored cell phones,” DOJ said, including by ordering gang members in Haiti to transfer money to Tunis and others in the U.S. to buy the guns. They bought the firearms from Florida gun shops and “falsely” said they were the “actual” gun buyers “when they were in fact acting as straw purchasers for Germine for the purpose of obtaining firearms for the gang,” DOJ said.
In May 2021, Tunis smuggled the firearms and ammunition to Haiti in containers disguised as food and household goods. In October of that year, Tunis shipped more guns and ammunition to Haiti, but DOJ said the FBI seized the goods before they left the U.S.