(Port-au-Prince) The leader of one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs was extradited to the United States on Tuesday, the Haitian National Police said as the territorial grip of armed gangs places the capital Port-au-Prince. to the Prince in a state of siege.
Posted at 4:07 p.m.
At the head of the “400 mawozo” gang, Germine Joly, nicknamed “Yonyon”, was transported by the American federal police (FBI) to the city of Washington, which had issued an international warrant against him at the end of april.
Incarcerated for several months in the prison of Port-au-Prince, he is being prosecuted by the United States for “importing weapons of war” and “kidnapping for ransom of American citizens”, specifies the press release from the Haitian police.
The gang, which he continued to lead from his cell, had kidnapped a group of 17 people last fall made up of North American missionaries and their relatives, including five children.
Since Friday, a Dominican diplomat has been kidnapped by this same armed band and a ransom of 500,000 dollars has been demanded for his release, according to a media from the neighboring country of Haiti.
The area controlled for several years by the “400 mawozo” is highly strategic, because it is the only road access to the north of the country as well as between the Haitian capital and the Dominican Republic.
For 10 days, clashes between this armed gang and another gang have completely paralyzed this northern suburb of Port-au-Prince.
Hundreds of families were forced to flee the area and at least 20 civilians were killed, according to the very partial assessment of the violence that the Haitian civil protection was able to establish last Thursday.
Since June 2021, the authorities have already lost control of the only road access that connects Port-au-Prince to the southern half of the country, because, over the space of two kilometers, the national road is completely under the control of armed bands. .