LEADER OF HAITI GANG EXTRADITED TO THE U.S.

The leader of a Haitian gang behind many of the mass kidnappings that have terrorized the nation, including that of 17 American and Canadian missionaries associated with an Ohio-based charity last year, has been extradited to the United States.

The Haitian National Police said in a statement that Germine Joly, also known as “Yonyon,” was flown to the United States on Tuesday after a request from U.S. authorities last month. He ran 400 Mawozo, which in recent weeks has been involved in battles with a rival gang that have left dozens of Haitian civilians dead and scores displaced.

A diplomat from the Dominican Republic was freed Wednesday after he disappeared last week in a 400 Mawozo stronghold in what officials called an “apparent” kidnapping while he was traveling to the Haiti-Dominican Republic border.

It’s unclear whether the two events are related.

Gangs have long been a presence in Haiti, but they’ve assumed greater power in recent years, controlling large parts of the country and holding fuel supplies and aid for earthquake victims hostage — mostly with impunity.

By any measure, 400 Mawozo is among the most violent of Haiti’s gangs. The group is feared for its use of rape, extortion, assassination and the mass seizures of occupied cars and busloads of people. It has stepped over what other gangs have considered red lines, targeting churches, members of the clergy and young children.

The gang demanded $1 million for each of the 17 American and Canadian missionaries with Christian Aid Ministries who were kidnapped last year while they were returning from a visit to an orphanage. After two months in captivity, the missionaries were freed — they say they escaped — and a ransom was reportedly paid.

Analysts say that Joly ran 400 Mawozo — whose name loosely translates to “400 simpletons” or “400 inexperienced men” in Creole — from his prison cell in Port-auPrince, where he had a cellphone, threw birthday parties for himself and dressed to the nines.

Haitian police said in a statement on Facebook that a warrant issued by the U.S. District Court in D.C. charges him with several crimes, including conspiracy and the kidnapping for ransom of American citizens.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.