When U.S. investigators began looking at the weapons purchased by three South Florida residents on behalf of a notorious gang leader in Haiti, the inventory was a cache of high-powered armory: variants of the AK-47 assault rifle, 12-gauge shotguns and holographic telescopic sights, for starters.
One gun in particular, the .50-caliber M82A1 Barrett sniper rifle, is so powerful that it can go through a cinder-block wall like it’s going through paper.
Federal agents in the ongoing weapons smuggling trial for Germine “Yonyon” Joly in a Washington, D.C. federal courtroom testified this week that they found the guns, or receipts for their purchase, during searches of South Florida homes and a storage unit in Orlando.
Joly, the head of the 400 Mawozo, is the first Haitian gang leader extradited to the United States in connection with the brazen kidnapping of 16 missionaries in the fall of 2021. He is facing 48 counts of weapons smuggling. The charges are related to straw purchases of firearms and ammunition from licensed Florida gun dealers. The weapons were then illegally shipped to Haiti from Florida seaports in violation of U.S. export laws for the use of Joly’s Port-au-Prince gang.