MIAMI – A powerful Haitian gang leader charged by U.S. prosecutors with ordering the kidnapping of an American couple from their home in Haiti, which left the woman dead, has been added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, the agency announced Wednesday during a press conference in Miami.
Vitel’Homme Innocent — who remains at large and is believed to be living in Tabarre, Haiti — was also charged last year in the October 2021 kidnappings of 17 Christian missionaries, including five children, one as young as 8 months old.
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The charges are considered largely symbolic in Haiti, where gangs are more powerful than the government and have bigger and better weapons than the police. Gang leaders have previously brushed off U.N. sanctions and criminal charges filed by U.S. federal authorities as they keep operating with impunity.
In the October 2022 kidnapping of Jean Franklin and Marie Odette Franklin, armed gang members stormed their home, and Marie Franklin was shot and killed in the kidnapping. Her husband, Jean, was held for 21 days and released following ransom payments made to the gang on behalf of his family, authorities said.
U.S. authorities are now offering a reward of $2 million for information leading to the capture of Innocent, who runs the violent Kraze Barye gang that operates in Port-au-Prince.
Innocent was previously charged by federal prosecutors in Washington last year in connection with the 2021 kidnappings of the U.S. Christian missionaries. Most of them were held for more than two months before escaping from captivity.
The latest indictment charges Innocent with conspiracy to commit hostage taking resulting in death, aiding and abetting hostage taking and attempted hostage taking resulting in death by the U.S. Justice Department.
Kraze Barye, which translates roughly to “Breaking Barriers,” controls the Tabarre community in central Port-au-Prince, as well as parts of Petionville and Croix-des-Bouquets within the capital.
It has some 600 members and is known for crimes including killings, rapes, robberies, kidnappings and drug and weapons trafficking, according to a recent report submitted to the U.N. Security Council.