Florida resident sentenced to prison for helping Haiti’s 400 Mawozo gang get weapons
A Florida resident who helped a violent Haitian gang acquire high-powered firearms — and who temporarily evaded an attempt by the FBI to arrest him — will spend the next five years in a U.S. federal prison for his participation in the sophisticated smuggling scheme.
Jocelyn Dor, 31, had faced as much as 20 years in prison after pleading guilty on Oct. 30, 2023, to conspiracy charges related to smuggling firearms to Haiti’s notorious 400 Mawozo gang. Instead, he was sentenced to 60 months as part of a plea deal. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates also ordered that Dor, a Haitian citizen, serve three years of supervised release for pleading guilty to conspiring to violate U.S. export laws, violating the export control reform act and laundering money with the purpose of promoting a specified unlawful activity.
As a straw purchaser for 400 Mawozo, Dor purchased 10 semiautomatic high-powered rifles at gun shops in the Orlando area between between Sept. 18, 2021 and Oct. 17, 2021, according to the federal prosecutors. He did so at the direction of Germine “Yonyon” Joly “for the express purpose of shipping the weapons to 400 Mawozo gang leaders in Haiti,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office said in a statement.
READ MORE: UN appeals for Haiti aid; humanitarian chief says suffering, pain unlike any she’s seen
Joly, 31, is the notorious leader of the armed group who was eventually extradited to the United States and put on trial last month after being indicted on four dozen charges related to weapons smuggling. His gang, 400 Mawozo, is responsible for the kidnappings of Haitians and U.S. citizens, including 17 missionaries with an Ohio-based charity, and various massacres near of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
The rifles Dor purchased through falsified documents were intended for combat, the U.S. government said. “One of the weapons, a Barrett .50-caliber rifle, is primarily used by militaries.... Dor falsely stated to the gun vendors that he was the ‘actual buyer’ of the firearms. He also received multiple transfers of thousands of U.S. dollars from his co-conspirators to pay for them,” the statement said.
Federal prosecutors had requested that Dor be imprisoned for 68 months, citing the gravity of his crime and his efforts to conceal his involvement in the conspiracy by resetting his cell phone before turning himself into the FBI through his attorney. The government said that after the FBI attempted to arrest Dor in October 2021, both he and the high-powered rifles he had purchased disappeared.
“Dor stopped using his cell phones, showing that he was aware that law enforcement was looking for him,” said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
The search was expanded to the midwest where Dor, who worked for a trucking company, was nearly captured at a trucker rest stop. On Nov. 5, 2021, Dor rented a storage unit in Orlando and three days later he had had his attorney contact the FBI to turn himself in. The FBI arrested Dor that day and recovered the guns at the Orlando storage unit.
Dor and two other Florida residents were arrested on weapons-smuggling and money laundering charges after their ties to Haiti’s 400 Mawozo gang surfaced during an FBI Miami Field Office investigation into the brazen October 2021 kidnapping in Haiti of 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries.
READ MORE: Plots, subplots and betrayal engulfed Haiti’s president before his assassination
During the U.S. trial for Joly, prosecutors presented evidence to show that Dor and two other defendants acted as straw buyers for the gang leader, who directed operations from his Haitian prison cell using an unmonitored cell phone. Among the weapons Dor purchased were a Riley Defense RAK-47 rifle and a Century Arms AK-47 style rifle from Shoot Straight in Orlando. He also purchased a Barrett 82A1 .50-caliber rifle and a a Springfield Armory M1A from Shooter’s World in Orlando.
During both purchases, the “defendant falsely filled out the ATF Form 4473, certifying that he was the ‘actual transferee/buyer’ of the firearms in question by checking “yes” to question 21(a) on the form,” court documents state.
Dor later purchased additional weapons after speaking to Joly in two phone calls. Again, he claimed to be the actual buyer of the firearms, the government said.
“Throughout this scheme, the defendant received money from the gang in Haiti for these purchases,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing. “While making all of these purchases, filling out all of these forms, and receiving all of these money transfers, the defendant knew that these weapons were being purchased for someone else and that he needed to make efforts to conceal that fact.”
Federal prosecutors said there were at least 24 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that were either exported or attempted to be exported from the United States to Haiti on behalf of 400 Mawozo gang by the Florida-based defendants.
Of the four defendants, only Joly went on trial. But he soon asked to change his plea while in the middle of trial and pleaded guilty to his role in the gunrunning conspiracy that smuggled firearms to Haiti in violation of U.S. export laws, and the laundering of ransoms paid for U.S. hostages to the gang in 2021. He faces life in prison when he is sentenced on May 15.
Joly’s co-defendant and girlfriend, Eliande Tunis, 45, of Pompano Beach, also pleaded guilty to 48 weapons-smuggling charges on the eve of trial. She had described herself as Joly’s “wife” and the queen of the gang, according to testimony during trial. She will be sentenced on May 8 and like Joly — who styled himself as “king” of 400 Mawozo — faces up to life in prison.
Another co-defendant, Walder St. Louis, 31, also pleaded guilty before trial and spent two days on the stand testifying against Joly.
