WASHINGTON — Germine Joly, the self-described “king” of Haiti’s notoriously violent 400 Mawozo gang, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in federal prison without parole for orchestrating the kidnapping of 17 missionaries — 16 of whom were U.S. citizens, including an eight-month-old baby.

The life sentence, handed down in a District of Colombia federal court, comes seven months after a jury convicted the gang leader known as “Yonyon” of helping to direct the abduction of the missionaries, who are members of Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries. In addition to life in prison, Judge John D. Bates ordered Joly, 34, to pay a fine of $1,700.

“This sentencing makes clear that Germine’s scheme to win freedom for himself by using Christians as pawns backfired,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

Most of the hostages, including a Canadian national, were held at gunpoint for 62 days. They won their freedom after a $350,000 ransom was paid, and it was made to look as if they had escaped.

The ordeal catapulted both 400 Mawozo and Haiti’s spiraling lawlessness into the global spotlight, highlighting the growing power of kidnapping-gangs in a country besieged by criminal violence.

Ar the time of the abductions, Joly was an inmate in Haiti’s National Penitentiary. That didn’t stop him from running the gang’s operations, using unmonitored cell phones to direct gunmen in not only kidnappings but also a gun-smuggling operation that funneled weapons from the United States to Haiti, with the help of associates in Florida.

During the trial, witnesses also testified that he controlled 400 Mawozo’s finances, directing payments to gang members, including payment of their salaries derived from hostage ransoms.

In January 2024, near the end of a bench trial, Joly pleaded guilty to charges in a different case related to a gun-trafficking conspiracy that violated U.S. export laws, as well as laundering ransom payments of U.S. citizen hostages. He was sentenced in June to 35 years in federal prison for those offenses.

The U.S. Probation Office had recommended a life sentence for the hostage-taking conviction, followed by 60 months of supervised release and a special assessment of $1,700. They also recommended that both sentences be served concurrently.

The government supported the recommendation. The “significant sentence” reflected the seriousness of Joly’s conduct, prosecutors said.

“This horrific crime was driven by defendant [Joly’s] own self-interest; he wanted to secure his release from prison in exchange for the hostages,” they said in court documents. “The requested sentence is sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to serve the interests of justice.”

Joly, however, argued through his lawyers that the court impose a sentence of roughly 25 years and 8 months in prison, along with 60 months supervised release — concurrent to the sentence imposed in the firearms’ conspiracy case. He also asked to serve his sentence in the South Florida region.

“Any prison sentence longer than 308 months imprisonment will have no greater effect toward the goals of sentencing than a life sentence,” defense attorney Allen Orenberg said in court documents. He argued that any sentence longer than 25 years would be “discorporate” and unreasonable when considering the sentences his co-defendants received in the gun-smuggling case.

Joly’s defense team, reiterating his denial of being the leader of 400 Mawozo, argued that he should not be penalized twice, and he should be afforded a reduced sentence. In their arguments, they provided a glimpse of his life, arguing that he was raised by an aunt and uncle after his parents left for the U.S.. They said “not having his parents with him surely impacted him.”

Joly “genuinely tried to help his countrymen, especially those that did not have much,” his defense team said in court documents. “The Haitian government did not provide services and resources to the poor like we have in this country, and [Joly] tried to fill the gap.”

The Mennonite missionaries were returning from visiting an orphanage east of Port-au-Prince at around 1 p.m. on Oct. 16, 2021 when they were forced from their vehicles at gun point. They were kept in various locations by armed gang members while their relatives negotiated ransom payments for their release. Among the hostages were five children, including the baby.

Shortly after, 400 Mawozo claimed responsibility for the kidnapping on social media and demanded a ransom of $17 million—$1 million per victim. On or about Nov. 11, 2021, the gang contacted a representative of the hostages and said, in lieu of ransom money, 400 Mawozo wanted defendant Joly freed from his Haitian incarceration.

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