US federal agents arrested four more suspects on Tuesday, including the owner of a security company in Miami (Florida), for the murder of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, committed on July 7, 2021, the Southern District Attorney’s Office reported. state.
Venezuelan-American Antonio Intriago, 59, owner of the US security company CTU Security, was arrested and charged, among other charges, with of “conspiring to provide means to kill or kidnap a person outside the United States.”said prosecutor Markenzy Lapointe at a press conference.
Also arrested and charged with the same charge was Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, 50, of Colombian origin and legal US resident, and an associate of Intriago.
According to The New York Times, Pretel Ortiz was an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and was fired after Moïse’s murder.
In 2021, Univision television reported that Pretel, whose real name is Gabriel Perez, participated in anti-narcotics training during the 1990s in Colombia, also served for a period in the Army and later created his own security firm.
Intriago and Pretel were part of the group that prosecutor Lapointe called “planners” of the plot to assassinate the Haitian president.
The other two arrested today in Florida are the Ecuadorian-American businessman Walter Veintermilla, 54, and the American Frederick Joseph Bergmann Jr, 64, a resident of Tampa, accused of allegedly financing the operation and smuggling merchandiserespectively.
Veintermilla and Bergmann would form the second group involved in the assassination, that of the “financiers”, in the words of Lapointe.
The prosecutor specified that with today’s four arrests the number of people in custody rises to 11 of the US with “criminal charges for his role in the murder” of Moïse.
The rest of the detainees made up the third group, that of the “operators”, that is, the group of ex-soldiers and others hired to carry out the murder of Moïse in Haiti.
Among the 11 suspects now in US custody are key men like James Solages, 37, and Joseph Vincent, 57, two Haitian-Americans who were among the first arrested after Moïse was shot 12 times in his home when he was killed.
Other suspects under arrest in the US are Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 64, a doctor, Haitian pastor and “aspiring political candidate” in his country, who may have been deceived by the real masterminds of the murder, according to local media .
And the Colombian Germán Alejandro Rivera García, 44, is another of the detainees.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, with the exception of Rivera, Solages, Vincent and Sanon lived in South Florida, where the largest community of Haitians in the US is based, and in April 2021 they met to discuss how to promote a change in the Presidency of the Caribbean nation.
According to court documents, from at least February 2021 to July of that year, South Florida “served as a central location for planning and financing the plot to overthrow President Moïse and replace him with someone who would serve the political objectives and financial interests of the conspirators.”
“A CALCULATED PLAN”
After one of the meetings, a list was drawn up with the necessary equipment and weapons “for the regime change operation” in Haiti, including rifles, machine guns, tear gas, grenades, ammunition and bulletproof vests.
On July 6, 2021, the accomplices met at a house near the residence of President Moïse, where firearms and equipment were distributed, and the mission was announced to kill President Moïse.
The following night, a heavily armed squad entered the home of President Moïse and shot him to death, an assassination that has since unleashed a period of gang violence and strong political instability in the Caribbean country.
It was a “calculated plan” that is not only a “human tragedy, but an assault at the heart of democratic principles”, an assassination that has had an “impact in Haiti with consequences that continue” today, the authorities added in the Press conference.
Authorities said the original plan was to detain Moïse, force him onto a plane and take him to an unidentified location, but that plot fell apart when the suspects could not find a plane or enough weapons, according to court documents.
Also in US custody are former Haitian Senator Joseph Joel John and Haitian-Chilean Rodolphe Jaar, who were arrested last year.
Intriago had told the authorities in 2021, through his lawyers, that he “was the victim of a scheme to take power in Haiti” that he was unaware of and that his company was contacted to provide security for a “humanitarian” infrastructure project. at Haiti.