Haitian President Assassination Suspects Sent to Miami Over Alleged COVID Fraud-Funded Plot

Eighteen people accused of taking part in the brazen 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse arrived in the United States to face federal charges Sunday, with Fox News cameras recording their arrival in Miami.

Exclusive video shows the defendants leaving a U.S. military aircraft in shackles while heavily guarded by FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents dressed in military-style fatigues. The transfer represents a significant development in the international investigation into the plot that ended with Haiti’s president being killed inside his bedroom.

“Today, the FBI and our interagency partners are executing yet another sweeping Foreign Transfer of Custody of 18 Haitian prisoners related to the investigation into the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse,” FBI Director Kash Patel told News Outlet 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.”

Moïse, 53, was fatally shot in July 2021 at his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince. His killing created a deep political vacuum in the Caribbean nation and further emboldened powerful armed groups.

FBI Miami said the accused individuals, including operatives from Haiti and Colombia, were moved from Haitian custody to face prosecution in the United States. Federal prosecutors asserted jurisdiction because much of the alleged conspiracy was organized and funded in South Florida.

Prosecutors allege the suspects used fraudulent COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans to finance the deadly operation. The five-year federal investigation, which led to charges against 30 suspects for various crimes, found that the assassination was supported by taxpayer money obtained through Florida-based businesses and used to acquire weapons, tactical gear and Colombian mercenaries who killed Moïse in his home.

The defendants are charged with offenses including conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person abroad and wire fraud. Some of the alleged attackers also reportedly impersonated federal agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to gain access to the presidential residence.

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As the suspects reached Miami, Justice Department prosecutors unsealed an indictment describing the broad alleged conspiracy. According to court documents, the plan began as an effort to violently remove Haiti’s president from power before ultimately turning into an assassination plot.

“This was really about greed,” Brett Skiles, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Miami, 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 scheduled to make their first appearances in federal court in Miami on Monday morning. Since cameras are prohibited inside federal courtrooms, the exclusive footage from the airport provides the only public images of the suspects entering U.S. custody.

“This assassination plot was planned, financed, conspired, here in Miami,” Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, 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.”

Four alleged ringleaders of the 2021 assassination plot were convicted in Miami in May and face the possibility of life in prison.

During the nine-week trial in federal court in Miami, prosecutors argued that the men recruited roughly two dozen former Colombian soldiers and provided them with money, firearms, 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 said in his statement.

“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.