Eighteen suspects in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were transported by military aircraft from Haiti to Florida on Sunday, marking a significant new phase in a years-long international investigation into one of the Caribbean's most shocking political killings. US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones confirmed the transfers, writing on X: "Five years later, we are still bringing defendants before American courts, and we are not finished."

Moïse, 53, was shot 12 times at his private residence in Port-au-Prince on 7 July 2021, in an attack that also injured his wife. The assault was carried out by a hired group of approximately 20 military-trained Colombian mercenaries, and his security detail did not intervene. Among those extradited on Sunday is Joseph Félix Badio, a former official in Haiti's Ministry of Justice anti-corruption unit considered a key suspect in orchestrating the plot — he had evaded authorities for over two years before being arrested in Haiti in October 2023. The remaining extradited suspects are understood to be Colombian mercenaries. Colombia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was closely monitoring the transfer of 17 Colombian citizens and noted that Bogotá had not intervened in the decision.

The extraditions come as US courts have already achieved significant convictions. In May, a federal jury in Miami found four men guilty of conspiring to kill or kidnap Moïse, providing material support for the plot, and violating the US Neutrality Act by engaging in an illicit military operation abroad. All four were linked to CTU — Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security — a private security firm based in South Florida. Prosecutors say the conspirators were lured by promises of lucrative government contracts if Moïse were ousted. At least five other defendants have already pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences. In total, 30 people have been indicted in connection with the killing. FBI Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles said the bureau remains "steadfast in ensuring that all individuals who allegedly sought profit from the assassination of a head of state are held fully accountable."

The Haitian judicial process had been repeatedly paralysed — judges resigned from the case fearing for their lives, gang violence seized control of Port-au-Prince's main courthouse, and a local court of appeals ordered a new investigation as recently as October 2025. The families of Colombian suspects were caught off guard by Sunday's sudden extradition. Diana Marcela Arbeláez Llano, wife of one of the suspects, said the detained Colombians had suffered severely in Haiti's notoriously harsh prison conditions. "We never imagined that the United States would have taken them so suddenly," she said.

The case unfolds against a backdrop of deepening crisis in Haiti, a Caribbean nation of roughly 12 million people sharing the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Gangs now control around 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, fuelling kidnappings, armed robbery, and carjackings. The country has had no president since Moïse's killing and is preparing to hold its first presidential and legislative elections since 2016, scheduled for 13 December — contingent on security conditions. A UN-backed armed force deployed to help police combat gangs had fewer than 1,000 personnel as of July, well short of its planned capacity of 5,500. With key fugitives, including former National Palace security chief Dimitri Hérard, still at large, US prosecutors have made clear that the investigation is far from over.