Four Convicted in Plot to Assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse

MIAMI — A federal jury convicted four defendants on May 8 2026 for their roles in the July 7 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse at his private residence in Port-au-Prince.

The U.S. Department of Justice announcement lists the four convicted individuals as part of a 21-person indictment returned in the Southern District of Florida. The jury found them guilty of charges tied to the armed raid that killed Moïse and wounded his wife.

The bundle does not name the four in the conviction notice but confirms the verdict after a trial that presented evidence of recruitment, financing and operational planning that spanned South Florida, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The convictions represent the first successful trial outcomes in the U.S. case. Of the original 21 defendants charged, several have pleaded guilty in prior proceedings while others remain fugitives. The four convicted defendants now face mandatory minimum sentences that include life imprisonment on the most serious counts.

Sentencing hearings will establish final prison terms and any restitution. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida must next schedule those dates and prepare formal judgments. Haitian law enforcement and judicial officials gain a completed U.S. trial record that prosecutors there can use in parallel domestic cases.

The verdicts also require the State Department and Treasury Department to review whether additional sanctions or travel restrictions tied to the conspiracy network become warranted.

The July 2021 assassination destabilized Haiti’s government and security environment at a time when the country already faced gang control over large sections of the capital. This U.S. prosecution forms one strand of a broader international effort. Colombian authorities previously arrested and extradited several former soldiers accused of direct participation in the raid.

The original indictment detailed how plotters recruited mercenaries under the false pretense of serving an arrest warrant, then transitioned to a kill mission financed through U.S.-based accounts.

The convictions close the trial phase for these four while the Justice Department continues to seek extraditions and arrests of remaining defendants listed in the 2021 indictment.