An American YouTuber who "likes danger" plans to take a break from traveling the globe to record videos after being kidnapped in Haiti while trying to interview the infamous gang leader known as "Barbecue."
Addison Pierre Maalouf, 26, spent 17 days in captivity before he and his family paid about $50,000 in ransom, he told the Voice of America for a Sunday report.
"I came to this country because I wanted to give a voice to somebody who was leading an insurrection against a very, very corrupt government," Maalouf said.
"Not that I know much about Haiti, but what I do know is that it's very big in the news and I'm an adventurer who likes danger."
Maalouf, who's from Georgia and calls himself YourFellowArab online, said he'd "been to 60 countries and Haiti so far is the number one worst country I've been to."
"I travel to dangerous places. I speak to people who are dangerous to understand their story and hear their voice," he said. "But after this, I'm done. I'm done for a little bit because my parents don't deserve the trouble that I put them through."
Maalouf said he "had a confirmed interview with Barbecue," a former Haitian police officer whose real name is Jimmy Chérizier.
But after arriving in Haiti, which is wracked by gang violence, Maalouf and local journalist Jean Sacra Sean Roubens were "set up by corrupt police officers," he said.
At one point during the ordeal, Maalouf said, he and Roubens were "locked in a room for four hours with shotguns held up to us" and "almost got shot by two people who were on crack."
Maalouf said he was otherwise "treated well" while being held for ransom by Haitian gang leader Lanmo Sanjou.
"But I would like to state that I was kidnapped purely for the color of my skin," he added. "So, being kidnapped for the color of my skin does not excuse the fact that we were treated well."
Sanjou, aka Joseph Wilson, is wanted by the FBI in the October 2021 kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries, including five children, who were held captive for 61 days.
The State Department has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or convictions.
A video posted online Saturday before Maalouf's relase showed Sanjou sitting on a sofa between Maalouf and Roubens, who both embraced him at the end of the recording.
Roubens told the New York Times that he was also released.
Sanjou couldn't be reached for comment, according to the Times.
