Suspects in Haitian president's assassination transferred to Miami, accused of funding plot with COVID fraud
Eighteen allegedly involved in the brazen 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse have touched down on U.S. soil to face federal charges, with Fox News cameras on the tarmac for their arrival Sunday.
In exclusive footage, the defendants can be seen stepping off a U.S. military aircraft in Miami, shackled and tightly guarded by FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents in military-like fatigues. The dramatic transfer marks a major turning point in the international investigation into the plot that left the Haitian leader dead in his bedroom.
"Today, the FBI and our interagency partners executed the largest foreign transfer of custody in FBI history," FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital in a statement. "It is the latest in an all-out 18-month blitz by this FBI man-hunting high-value targets across the world and bringing them back to the United States to face justice."
The 53-year-old president was shot dead in July 2021 at his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince, a killing that left a gaping political vacuum in the Caribbean nation and emboldened powerful armed groups in the country.
According to FBI Miami, the accused — comprising operatives from Haiti and Colombia — were transferred from Haitian custody to face the U.S. justice system. Federal prosecutors established jurisdiction because the conspiracy was largely organized and financed in South Florida.
Prosecutors allege the defendants utilized fraudulent COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to bankroll the deadly mission. A complex five-year federal investigation into 30 suspects charged with crimes revealed the assassination was financed by American taxpayer dollars to businesses based in Florida to gather the weapons, tactical gear, and Colombian mercenaries that killed Moise inside his own home.
The charges include conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person abroad, as well as wire fraud. Some of the assassins even allegedly posed as federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in order to get inside the presidential residence in Haiti.
MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING OVER $1M IN PPP LOANS FOR SUPPOSED AMATEUR BASKETBALL LEAGUE
As the 18 suspects arrived in Miami, Department of Justice prosecutors unsealed an indictment detailing the sprawling conspiracy. Court documents outline a plot initially aimed at violently overthrowing the Haitian President, which ultimately escalated into an assassination.
This was "really about greed," Miami Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles told Fox News. "These were people that owned business interests in the United States that were looking to get lucrative contracts from the government of Haiti and believed that if they could initiate a regime change to the assassination, that those contracts could then come their way, and they would profit off of it."
The defendants were making their first appearance in federal court in Miami Monday morning. Because cameras are strictly prohibited inside federal courtrooms, the exclusive tarmac video serves as the only visual of the suspects entering U.S. custody.
"This assassination plot was planned, financed, conspired, here in Miami," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones told Fox News. "It's not only just holding people accountable for committing murder, but it's holding people accountable if they use government funds in a fraud to facilitate that murder."
KASH PATEL REVEALS FBI'S CAPTURE OF ALL 10 MEMBERS OF MOST WANTED FUGITIVE'S LIST DURING HEARING
The four ringleaders of this 2021 assassination plot were convicted in Miami in May and they face life in prison.
Prosecutors argued during the nine-week trial in a Miami federal court that the men assembled two dozen former Colombian soldiers and supplied them with money, guns, ammunition and tactical vests.
"When you pick up the phone and engage with foreign partners at a historic level, as we’ve done – a 400% increase these last 18 months – this is what happens," Patel's statement concluded.
"Thank you to FBI Miami for their leadership in this investigation as well as our law enforcement partners who executed."
Haitian Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier confirmed in a statement that suspects had been transferred from Haiti to the US, adding that Haitian judicial proceedings had been delayed.
"While the American procedure has recorded significant progress, notably arrests, prosecutions, and convictions, the Haitian procedure remains confronted with major difficulties and has not, to date, resulted in a trial being held, after five years of proceedings," Pelissier said.
In Haiti, prominent human rights activist Pierre Espérance said that the slow pace of the Haitian case and the transfer of the 18 suspects to the U.S. was a "disgrace for the Haitian justice system."
He argued for strengthening the country's justice system to allow for such complex cases to be tried inside Haiti, rather than sending them to the U.S. for prosecution.
Reuters contributed to this report.