The 4 suspects in the assassination of Haiti’s president were transferred to U.S. custody

The case of James Solages and Joseph Vincent in the U.S. referred to as “Moses Behind the Assassination of Mose”

Two Haitian-Americans, including James Solages, 37, and JosephVincent, 57, are now in custody of the U.S. government, due to their alleged involvement in the murder of Mose.

The accused is Christian Sanon, a pastor, doctor, and failed businessman that authorities have identified as a key player. His associates have suggested he was duped by the real — and still unidentified — masterminds behind the assassination that has plunged Haiti deep into political chaos and unleashed a level of gang violence not seen in decades.

The fourth suspect was identified as Colombian citizen Germán Rivera García, 44, who is among nearly two dozen former Colombian soldiers charged in the case.

Rivera, along with Solages and Vincent, face charges including conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the U.S. and providing material support and resources resulting in death, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Sanon is accused of conspiring to smuggle things from the U.S. The items he shipped were described as ” medical X-ray vests and school supplies”, according to court documents.

It was not immediately known if the four suspects had attorneys who could comment on the development. The men are due to appear in court.

A total of seven suspects in the case are now in U.S. custody. Dozens of others still languish in Haiti’s main penitentiary, which is severely overcrowded and often lacks food and water for inmates.

The case has gone on for some time in Haiti and last year the local officials nominated a fifth judge to investigate the killing.

One judge told The Associated Press that his family asked him not to take the case because they feared for his life. One of his assistants died under questionable circumstances and the judge stepped down.

The night of the shooting of Mose: When the Haitian president was killed and the United States arrested Palacios Palacios Palacios

Court documents state that exactly two months before Moïse was killed, Vincent texted Solages a video of a cat “reacting alertly” to the sound of gunfire and that Solages laughed, prompting Vincent to respond: “That’s the way Jovenel will be pretty much, but (sooner) if you guys really up to it!”

In June, ex-boc har soldiers were recruited to help arrest and protect Sanon, who thought he was Haiti’s new leader. Rivera was in charge of that group, the documents state.

The original plan was to have Mose taken to a location, but that plan fell through when the suspects couldn’t find a plane or enough weapons.

A day before the killing, Solages falsely told other suspects that it was a CIA operation and that the real mission was to kill the president. Before Mose died, Solages said that it was an operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration to get the president’s security detail to agree.

About a year after the killing, U.S. authorities say they interviewed Solages, Vincent and Rivera while they were in Haitian custody and that they agreed to talk.

That same month, U.S. authorities arrested Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, a former Colombian soldier who was deported by Jamaica after fleeing there from Haiti. While en route to Colombia, he was detained by U.S. officials in Panama during a layover.

Izaguirre said that the trial will be delayed because of the fact that the other four have to be tried at the same time. He said Palacios had been prepared for the trial to begin in early March, but now it could be postponed for up to four months.

The June 2021 Haitian Assassination Revisited: Charges against a Venezuelan-American Soldier and a Vice President, Martine Mose

Emmanuel Jeanty, an attorney for the president’s widow, Martine Moïse, who was injured in the attack and flown to the U.S. for care, did not return a message for comment.

In December, Martine Moïse tweeted that her husband — who also has been accused of corruption, which he denied — had fought against it, which resulted in his assassination. She wrote that despite the obstacles, the people are demanding justice.

The squad of former Colombian soldiers are among dozens of suspects who carried out the July 2021 attack that authorities say originally was envisioned to be a coup rather than an assassination. According to investigators, the plan was to get lucrative contracts under a new administration once Mose left.

Antonio “Tony” Intriago, 59, a Venezuelan-American who owned CTU Security that hired the Colombians, is charged with conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person outside the U.S. among other charges. CTU company representative Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, 50, a Colombian-born resident of the U.S., faces the same charges.

Walter Veintemilla, 54, of Weston, Fla., is accused of funding the operation. A fourth suspect, Frederick Joseph Bergmann Jr., 64, of Tampa, is accused of smuggling goods including 20 CTU-branded ballistic vests disguised as medical X-ray vests and school supplies.

A power vacuum following the assassination has allowed gangs in Haiti to gain more power and control more territory, with experts estimating that they control 60% of Port-au-Prince. A spike in kidnappings, rapes and killings have prompted Prime Minister Ariel Henry to demand the immediate deployment of foreign troops. But the request in October has gone unheeded by the U.N. Security Council, which has opted to implement sanctions so far.

Charging documents say that the men planned to oust President Moise and install Sanon as president by that time.

Authorities said that Intriago, Ortiz and Veintemilla expected to “reap significant financial benefits” if Sanon became president via anticipated contracts for infrastructure, military equipment and the provision of security forces.

Ortiz and the Josephs: The current president is the thief, where are we? Where is the widow of the president?

Around that time, Ortiz told Solages that “the current president is the thief…delete the messages that could compromise you in case of being captured.” A photo of a sketched assault plan, including “snipers” and “10 warrior-neutralizers,” was included in a text message sent to another suspect.

The suspects used code words such as “screws” and “nails” for weapons, with Veintemilla providing $15,000 to Solages to buy them, and $250,000 for armored vests, authorities said.

John Jol Joseph was a former senator of Haiti who had fled to Jamaica. Rodolphe Jaar was extradited from the Dominican Republic.

The situation has angered and frustrated the president’s widow, who lashed out in a 13 minute video that was posted earlier this month.

She said that it was a huge crime against the nation. “Where is the mother law of the country, where are the people, where is the democracy?”