Eighteen suspects in the 2021 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise have been transported to Florida to face trial, US officials said Sunday.
Moise, 53, was gunned down at his private residence on July 7, 2021, by a group of around 20 Colombian mercenaries, many of them military-trained. His security detail did not intervene to protect him.
“Today’s multi-location and international arrests underscore the FBI’s continued commitment to bringing all participants in this plot to justice,” FBI special agent Brett Skiles said on X.
Federal prosecutor Jason Reding Quinones said in the same post: “18 transported in military plane from Haiti to face American justice in the Southern District of Florida.”
“Five years later, we are still bringing defendants before American courts, and we are not finished,” Quinones wrote, adding that 30 suspects have so far been indicted in connection with the killing.
Among those extradited is Joseph Felix Badio, a key suspect in the investigation and a former anti-corruption official at Haiti’s Ministry of Justice, Haitian government and police sources told AFP.
The other 17 are Colombian mercenaries, according to the same sources.
Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sunday it was closely monitoring “the transfer of 17 Colombian citizens from the Republic of Haiti to the United States.”
Bogota “did not intervene in the decision or in the process that led to the transfer of its citizens to the United States, a matter that falls under the jurisdiction of the competent authorities of the countries involved,” the ministry said.
In May, four men were convicted in a federal court in Miami on charges including conspiracy to kill or kidnap Moise, conspiracy to provide material support and violating the US Neutrality Act by engaging in an illicit military operation abroad.
They face possible sentences of life in prison.
All four were linked to CTU, a Florida-based private security firm, and were drawn into the plot by the prospect of securing lucrative contracts following Moise’s ouster, according to federal prosecutors.
Eleven people had already been indicted in connection with the assassination in US courts, which have jurisdiction over plots hatched on American soil.
Deepening crisis
Haiti has spiraled into deeper chaos since Moise’s killing and currently has no president.
The country is preparing to hold its first presidential and legislative elections since 2016, as well as a referendum on the constitution, on December 13, if security conditions allow.
Gangs control around 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, while kidnappings for ransom, armed robberies and carjackings continue to plague the impoverished nation.
A United Nations-backed armed force tasked with helping Haitian police combat the gangs will not be fully staffed by October as originally planned, its spokesman said earlier this month.
AFP
