PLANO, Texas — A scheme involving the recruitment of homeless people from Washington, D.C., an international assault, and plans for kidnapping and murder has led to the arrest of two Texas residents. The accused now face potential life sentences.

Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, aged 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, aged 20, were formally charged by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas. The indictment provides a detailed account of their sinister plan to seize control of an island near Haiti to fulfill horrific fantasies.

Between August 2024 and July 2025, the pair allegedly intended to employ homeless individuals from the D.C. area as mercenaries to overthrow the government on Gonâve Island. This island, governed by Haiti, is its largest offshore landmass with a population ranging from 85,000 to 100,000.

According to court records, their plan involved murdering all the men on the island and forcing the women and children into sexual servitude. They aimed to acquire a sailboat, weaponry, and ammunition to support their coup.

In preparation, the duo studied Haitian Creole. Additionally, Thomas joined the Air Force, communicating to Weisenburg through social media that this move would further their plot.

While he was assigned to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for his initial station, he had himself reassigned to Joint Base Andrews, so he could stay in the U.S. and be nearer to D.C. to aid in recruiting people experiencing homelessness nearby to be part of their” army,” according to court documents.

Meanwhile, Weisenburg enrolled in the North Texas Fire Academy to train in command-and-control protocols — skills he would need, court documents say, for the armed coup. He failed out of school six months later.

Two weeks after being dismissed from the school, he flew to Thailand. There, he planned to enroll in a sailing school to learn to use the boat they planned to buy to reach Gonâve Island, court documents say. But the school was too expensive, and he did not end up enrolling.

At some point in this process, they also allegedly coerced a minor into participating in child pornography that they filmed.

Weisenburg and Thomas were charged federally with conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography. If convicted of the first charge, they face up to life in prison, and if convicted of the second charge, they face 15 to 30 years in prison.