Eighteen suspects extradited to US over Haitian president’s 2021 killing

A military flight on Sunday transported 18 suspects accused in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise from Port-au-Prince to Florida, where they will face federal charges, U.S. authorities said. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida have said the plot was largely engineered, financed and staged out of southern Florida, giving federal courts there jurisdiction over the case. The extraditions come after a series of prosecutions tied to the killing. In May, a Florida jury convicted four men in connection with the plot, and at least five other defendants have pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences, according to federal prosecutors. FBI Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles confirmed that multiple arrests were carried out in the United States and abroad on Sunday. U.S. Attorney Jason A Reding Quinones said the move marks the next phase of efforts to hold those responsible accountable and indicated investigators will pursue individuals who financed, facilitated or supported the assassination. Quinones and investigators cited the collapse of Haiti’s judicial capacity amid widespread gang violence and corruption as a factor in trying the case in the United States. Haiti continues to face severe insecurity since Moise’s July 2021 killing, when the president, 53, was shot at his private residence in the Pelerin 5 neighborhood and his wife was critically injured. Armed gangs have expanded their influence amid the political vacuum, reportedly controlling an estimated 90% of Port-au-Prince. The United Nations recorded at least 8,100 gang-related killings in 2025 and said roughly 1.5 million people had been displaced. Some Haitian figures criticized the extraditions. Pierre Esperance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, called the transfer of the 18 suspects a "disgrace for the Haitian justice system" and urged an overhaul so complex cases could be tried inside Haiti in the future. Authorities in Haiti who remain implicated in the broader probe include more than a dozen Colombian soldiers and a former Haitian government official, according to U.S. prosecutors.