The people who plotted to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moise were hoping to install a new leader in exchange for defense contracts, according to U.S. authorities.
The Justice Department laid out the alleged plot after arresting four more U.S. residents early Tuesday morning in Florida.
Key planners Antonio “Tony” Intriago, 59, Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, 50, and Walter Veintemilla, 54, were detained Tuesday. Another man accused of helping with logistics, Frederick Joseph Bergmann Jr., 64, was also cuffed.
Moise was assassinated in July 2021 at his home in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince by ex-Colombian soldiers. The resulting leadership vacuum has led to chaos in the capital city and throughout the island nation, to the point that police rioted earlier this year after several officers were killed by gangs.
Intriago, Ortiz and Veintemilla were hoping to get rich off the scheme, federal investigators said Tuesday. Intriago owned a Florida-based security company called CTU Security, and Ortiz was a CTU representative, according to the feds. Veintemilla allegedly financed the operation.
Their initial plan was to overthrow Moise in a coup d’etat, the feds said. But they couldn’t get their hands on a plane to fly the president out of the country, so they pivoted to the assassination plot, according to investigators.
The plotters allegedly hoped to install pastor Christian Emmanuel Sanon. He was then supposed to hire CTU and other backers for security, military equipment and infrastructure contracts, the feds said. Intriago, Ortiz and Veintemilla would “reap significant financial benefits.”
Sanon was arrested earlier this year. At one point in the plot, according to authorities, some suspects bailed on the plan to install him and instead supported a former Haitian supreme court judge. The judge remains at large.
With News Wire Services
