A powerful Haitian gang leader who's been charged by U.S. prosecutors with ordering the kidnapping of an American couple that left a woman dead has been added to the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list.
The FBI in Miami announced Wednesday that there's now a $2 million reward for information leading to the arrest of 37-year-old Vitel'homme Innocent.
“He is a menace to the island and he is clearly a menace to American citizens,” Jeffrey B. Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami office, said during a news conference.
Innocent, the leader of the Kraze Barye gang, is facing charges in connection with the Oct. 2022 kidnapping in Haiti of Jean Franklin and Marie Odette Franklin. Marie Franklin was shot and killed in the kidnapping. Her husband, Jean, was held for 21 days.
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He was previously charged in connection to the October 2021 kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries in Haiti, including five children, who were held hostage at gunpoint for up to 61 days.
Innocent is charged 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.
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Gang warfare has increasingly plagued Haiti since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Gang members regularly kill, rape and hold residents for ransom. Some are held for months.
More than 1,230 killings and 701 kidnappings were reported across Haiti from July 1 to Sept. 30, more than double the figure reported during the same period last year, according to the U.N.
An estimated 200 gangs operate in Haiti, with the largest groups controlling up to 80% of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
In August, kidnappers in Haiti released a U.S. nurse and her daughter, nearly two weeks after they were snatched at gunpoint from the campus of a Christian-run school near Port-au-Prince.
The July 27 abduction of Alix Dorsainvil and her child happened the very day the U.S. State Department warned U.S. citizens to leave “as soon as possible” and ordered the departure of nonemergency U.S. government personnel from Haiti because of security concerns. The country remains under a U.S. “do not travel” advisory.
Earlier this year, a couple from Broward was kidnapped in Haiti and later freed. Jean-Dickens Toussaint and wife Abigail Michael Toussaint and a third person traveling with them had been kidnapped on March 18 in the capital of Port-au-Prince before their release in April.
