Eighteen suspects arrested in connection with the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were awaiting extradition to the United States on Sunday, bringing Haiti’s prolonged judicial proceedings over the shocking killing closer to an end.
The suspects are expected to stand trial in Florida, Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said.
“Today marks the next major phase in our pursuit of accountability for the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse,” Quiñones wrote on X. He vowed that authorities would pursue evidence involving anyone who financed, enabled or supported the operation, adding that U.S. prosecutors were still bringing defendants before American courts five years after the killing.
Quiñones did not disclose the identities of those being extradited. The group still in Haiti and awaiting trial includes more than a dozen former Colombian soldiers, along with a former Haitian government official.
CLARENS SIFFROY/AFP via Getty Images
Quiñones said 30 people have been indicted in connection with Moïse’s death. FBI Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles also said several arrests had been carried out in the United States and other countries on Sunday.
Skiles said the FBI and its partners would continue working to ensure that everyone accused of seeking financial gain from the assassination of a head of state is held accountable.
The extraditions come as U.S. authorities continue prosecuting and sentencing other defendants linked to the plot against the Haitian president.
In May, a Florida jury convicted four men in the killing. At least five other defendants have pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences.
The four men convicted most recently were Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages, all of whom had pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors described them as key figures in the conspiracy to assassinate the Haitian leader. The jury found them guilty of conspiring to kill or kidnap Haiti’s elected president and providing material support for the scheme.
Martine Moïse, the former first lady, was injured in the attack that killed her husband. She testified in a Miami federal courtroom in March, delivering an emotional and sometimes graphic account of the assault inside the couple’s bedroom at their home in Pétion-Ville.
During her testimony, she also accused former Haitian President Michel Martelly and former Prime Minister Ariel Henry of having links to her husband’s assassination. A Haitian judge indicted Martine Moïse in 2024 on charges including complicity and criminal association, allegations her attorney dismissed as “ridiculous and unjust.”
