Eighteen people accused of involvement in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise have been transported to the United States to face trial, more than five years after the killing shocked the Caribbean nation and drew global attention to Haiti’s fragile security situation.
US federal investigators said the group includes Joseph Felix Badio, a former Haitian anti-corruption official said to have played a central role in coordinating the plot, along with seventeen Colombian nationals. Moise was shot dead at his private residence in July 2021 by what authorities have described as a squad of roughly twenty military-trained Colombian mercenaries, in an attack that also left Haiti’s then-first lady seriously wounded.
An FBI official confirmed the latest arrests and transfers, describing them as part of a broader, multi-location and international operation aimed at holding all alleged participants accountable. The suspects are expected to appear before US courts, where prosecutors say a total of 30 people have now been indicted in connection with the assassination, eleven of whom had already faced charges in American courts prior to this latest round of arrests.
The case has moved slowly through the US justice system, partly because of the international nature of the plot, which investigators say involved individuals in Haiti, Colombia, and the United States. In May, four men were convicted on charges that included conspiracy to kill a foreign head of state and violations of the US Neutrality Act, marking the first convictions secured in the sprawling case.
Moise’s assassination plunged Haiti deeper into political instability, worsening a security crisis that has since seen armed gangs seize control of large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and displace hundreds of thousands of residents. The killing remains one of the most consequential political assassinations in the Western Hemisphere in recent decades, and prosecutors say the latest arrests represent a major step toward accountability, even as questions persist over who ultimately ordered the killing and why.