Joly Germine, the leader of the infamous Haitian gang 400 Mawozo, has admitted to charges of gun smuggling and money laundering. He was implicated in a scheme that involved illegally exporting firearms to Haiti, thereby violating U.S. export laws.

According to a press release by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Germine also confessed to laundering ransoms paid to his gang for U.S. hostages in 2021. The DOJ revealed that at least 24 firearms were purchased in the United States as part of this illicit operation aimed at aiding the gang's criminal activities. Throughout the trial, 24 witnesses testified and two weeks' worth of evidence was presented. Germine was indicted on charges including conspiracy to violate U.S. export control laws, defrauding the United States, smuggling, and laundering ransom proceeds. If convicted on all counts, Germine could face life imprisonment.

The evidence showed that between March and November 2021, Germine orchestrated this operation from a Haitian prison using unmonitored cell phones. Firearms and ammunition were smuggled into Haiti in May 2021, with additional firearms shipped inside containers disguised as household goods in October 2021. His gang claimed responsibility for kidnapping 16 U.S. citizens in fall 2021 and demanded a ransom of $1 million per hostage. By December 2021, all these hostages had either been released or managed to escape.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen from the Justice Department’s National Security Division commented on the case: "Mr. Germain admitted to an illegal gun-running scheme to arm fellow gang members with U.S.-origin firearms in support of the group’s violent crime spree across Haiti, including the alleged 2021 kidnapping of 14 U.S. citizens," Olsen said. "The Justice Department will aggressively pursue every tool at its disposal to hold accountable those who would smuggle U.S.-origin weapons and other controlled goods for the benefit of malicious actors and their criminal enterprises."