PORT-AU-PRINCE / MIAMI — A military plane flew 18 suspects in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse from Haiti to the United States on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, according to Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Reuters reported.

“Today marks the next major phase in our pursuit of accountability for the assassination,” Quiñones said in a statement posted on social media, per Reuters. CBS and ABC, citing the same statement on X, quoted him adding that prosecutors “will follow the evidence wherever it leads, to those who financed it, facilitated it, supported it or committed crimes to make it possible,” and that five years later they are “still bringing defendants before American courts, and we are not finished.”

The suspects will face trial in Florida. Quiñones did not name the 18 transferred Sunday. Haitian Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier confirmed that suspects had been transferred from Haiti to the U.S. and said Haitian judicial proceedings had been delayed, Reuters reported.

Quiñones said 30 people have been indicted in the United States in connection with the killing. U.S. prosecutors have argued that suspects used South Florida as a “staging ground for a deadly foreign plot,” according to Reuters.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles noted that there were multiple arrests in the U.S. and abroad on Sunday, CBS News reported, citing Skiles’ statement that the FBI and others “remain steadfast in ensuring that all individuals who allegedly sought profit from the assassination of a head of state are held fully accountable.” Sources did not publish a count of Sunday’s arrests beyond that description — do not invent one.

Those who remain in Haiti awaiting trial include more than a dozen Colombian soldiers and a former Haitian government official, CBS reported, citing Associated Press reporting. ABC’s AP wire separately described those still in Haiti as including more than a dozen Colombian soldiers, a former Haitian police officer, and a former Haiti Ministry of Justice employee who was part of an anti-corruption unit.

Prior U.S. case progress — attribute; not Sunday’s flight: In May, a Florida jury convicted four men in the plot — Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and James Solages, per CBS/AP. At least five others have pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences, CBS and ABC reported. Those May verdicts and prior pleas are continuum context; they are not mashed into Sunday’s extradition as if they happened on Sept. 20.

Moïse, 53, was shot dead in July 2021 at his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince — a killing that left a political vacuum and emboldened armed groups, Reuters noted. In Haiti, human rights activist Pierre Espérance called the slow pace of the Haitian case and the transfer of the 18 suspects to the U.S. a “disgrace for the Haitian justice system,” arguing for trying such cases inside Haiti rather than sending them abroad, Reuters reported.

The extradition underscores the reach of U.S. federal prosecutorial power over a foreign presidential assassination when domestic courts stall. Concentration of charging, extradition, and sentencing authority in a single U.S. district deserves the same skepticism the desk applies to any other claim of state necessity: attribute the indictment tally and Sunday flight to SDFL and the wires; do not invent the identities of the 18; keep prior Florida convictions separate from today’s transfer.

Sources