Haiti's 400 Mawozo gang, which kidnapped a group of U.S. and Canadian missionaries over the weekend, started out as small-time local thieves and rose to become one of the country's most feared gangs that controls a rural area east of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to security experts.
The group is seeking $17 million for the release of 16 Americans and one Canadian who were in Haiti as part of a missionary visit, boosting global attention on the country's kidnapping problem, which has worsened amid economic and political crises.
In April, the gang abducted a group of nuns and priests that included two French citizens, who were released later that month. A ransom was paid in that case, Haitian Justice Minister Liszt Quitel told the Wall Street Journal. "To my knowledge, they haven't been kidnapping for more than two years. Sometimes they ask for money to let trucks through."
In one video published on YouTube, the man says he killed a rival he identified as Karl Henry, adding he subsequently took over his late rival's house.
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