By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States announced criminal charges against Haitian gang leader and former police officer Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier and a North Carolina man on Tuesday for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions.

The July 17 indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Cherizier and Bazile Richardson, also known as “Fredo Pam,” engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to circumvent sanctions and raise funds for Cherizier’s gang activities in Haiti. It alleges they solicited funds from members of the Haitian diaspora in the United States to help pay salaries of gang members and purchase firearms.

Richardson is a naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in Haiti and resides in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Cherizier launche

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