Eighteen suspects accused of involvement in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse have been transported from Haiti to the United States to face trial, marking one of the most consequential developments in the case since the president was killed five years ago.
A military aircraft carried the group from Haiti on Sunday, September 20, according to US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones of the Southern District of Florida.
Quiñones described the transfer as the next major phase in the effort to secure accountability for the assassination.
He said investigators would continue following evidence concerning people alleged to have financed, facilitated, supported or directly participated in the operation.
Thirty people have now been indicted in connection with the killing, according to the US attorney.
The initial announcement did not identify each of the 18 transferred defendants or publish a complete list of the charges against every person in the group.
That limitation is important. Their transfer to US custody confirms that proceedings are advancing, but they remain suspects or defendants unless and until convicted.
Moïse, 53, was shot dead at his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021.
His wife, Martine Moïse, was wounded during the assault.
The killing shocked Haiti, removed the country’s sitting head of state and deepened a political and institutional crisis that armed groups subsequently exploited.
Investigators have alleged that former Colombian soldiers and Haitian-American intermediaries participated in the operation.
However, parallel investigations in Haiti and the United States have generated competing accounts concerning the plan’s development, its intended political beneficiaries and the people who provided the ultimate instructions.
The question of who commissioned the assassination remains unresolved publicly.
Sunday’s operation follows several prosecutions already completed or advancing in the United States.
In May 2026, a federal jury in Florida convicted four men of conspiring to kill or kidnap Moïse and providing material support for the plot.
The convicted men were Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintimilla and James Solages.
US prosecutors argued during the nine-week trial that the defendants helped assemble approximately two dozen former Colombian soldiers and supplied money, weapons, ammunition and tactical equipment for the operation.
At least five other defendants previously pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences, according to the Associated Press.
The newly transferred suspects will enter a legal process separate from those completed cases. Their precise trial schedule, pleas and individual allegations had not been released when this report was prepared.
FBI officials said multiple arrests had been made in the United States and abroad as part of the continuing investigation.
The agency described the alleged pursuit of profit from the assassination of a head of state as a central concern of the case.
The transfer is also a severe indictment of Haiti’s judicial capacity.
The suspects had been held in Haiti during a prolonged domestic process marked by institutional weakness, security problems and repeated delays.
Pierre Espérance, executive director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network, described their removal to the United States as a disgrace for the Haitian justice system.
He called for reforms allowing Haiti to investigate and try complex national cases inside the country.
That criticism presents an important tension.
The transfer may accelerate proceedings and place defendants before a functioning federal court. It simultaneously underscores Haiti’s inability to complete one of the most important criminal cases in its modern history through its own institutions.
Haiti has experienced successive political crises, gang expansion and the breakdown of government authority since Moïse’s death.
Armed groups control or contest substantial parts of Port-au-Prince, while attacks on courts, police facilities, prisons and public infrastructure have weakened the state’s ability to conduct major trials.
The US prosecutions may establish the legal responsibility of individual defendants.
They will not automatically answer every political question surrounding the killing, including who expected to gain power, whether all financial sponsors have been identified and how the operation penetrated the president’s security arrangements.
The United States has jurisdiction over elements of the case because prosecutors allege that parts of the conspiracy were organised or supported from South Florida and involved people and financial transactions connected to the country.
The Southern District of Florida has become the principal venue for the international prosecution.
The most firmly established new development is that 18 suspects have left Haiti for US custody and are expected to face proceedings in Florida.
Their identities, full charge sheets, first court appearances and plea decisions remain developing.
