Another four South Florida residents have been arrested for alleged roles in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. A year and a half into their investigation, US federal authorities believe Moise was killed in an attempted coup that went awry. Dozens of suspects have been arrested, including several Haitian Americans and former Colombian soldiers. Those newly arrested in South Florida include Antonio "Tony" Intriago, a 59-year-old Venezuelan-American who owns a Miami-area security company believed to have hired the soldiers for the mission, and his Colombian-born business partner, Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, 50, per the AP.
Intriago and Ortiz of Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Security are charged with conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person outside the US. They "devised the plan to depose the president," US Attorney Markenzy Lapointe says, per the Miami Herald. Financier Walter Veintemilla, 54, of Weston, Fla., allegedly funded the operation. Authorities say his company, Worldwide Capital Lending Group, provided a $175,000 line of credit to CTU in April 2021—three months before the assassination. Around that time, Ortiz met with the FBI in an unsuccessful attempt to draw the bureau into "a discussion about regime change in Haiti," according to charging documents.
Authorities say the three "planned to foment a public uprising aimed at ousting President Moise" and replacing him with a pastor and failed businessman named Christian Emmanuel Sanon, who is also accused in the plot. They allegedly expected to receive lucrative contracts under the new administration. A fourth suspect, Frederick Joseph Bergmann Jr., 64, of Tampa, allegedly smuggled ballistic vests to the former soldiers in a shipment from Miami marked as "medical x-ray vests and school supplies," reports the Herald. There are now 11 suspects in US custody. (More Haiti stories.)
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