![\"Colombian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2219767203-GI.JPG\" "\\"Colombian")
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Colombian men accused of involvement in the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Mo\u00efse attend for a hearing at the Court of Appeal in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on June 16, 2025. Mo\u00efse was assassinated on July 7, 2021 in his Port-au-Prince residence.<\/p>\n
CLARENS SIFFROY<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
In the hours after Haitian President Jovenel Mo\u00efse was shot to death inside the bedroom of his mountaintop home<\/a>, an inner circle of people suspected of being involved in the assassination plot in South Florida and in Port-au-Prince were frantically trying to steer events in their favor.<\/p>\n One of them, Antonio \u201cTony\u201d Intriago, who owned a Doral-based security firm, reached out to Haiti\u2019s police chief, L\u00e9on Charles, for cover. In a text message, Intriago wrote that certain Americans needed Charles\u2019 protection after acting under a Haitian judge\u2019s order<\/a> that led to Mo\u00efse\u2019s slaying more than four years ago.<\/p>\n Intriago told Charles that he \u201cmust stop any confrontation\u201d between the Haitian national police and a group of former Colombian soldiers suspected of killing the president.<\/p>\n He also offered the head of the Haiti National Police the opportunity to come work with his security firm, along with \u201cinternational protection\u201d for him and his family.<\/p>\n The outreach by the Venezuelan American accused of hiring the squad of Colombian commandos was part of a flurry of communications that federal prosecutors presented over the past week at the Miami federal trial of Intriago and three other South Florida men accused of conspiring to kidnap or kill Mo\u00efse on July 7, 2021.<\/p>\n The four defendants are among 11 individuals charged in the United States. Of those, five pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Haiti\u2019s president while a sixth pleaded guilty to smuggling ballistic vests into the Caribbean country. As the trial heads into week five, prosecutors introduced their exchanges as part of a vast trove of text messages to show the planning behind the plot and the frantic maneuvering that followed.<\/p>\n The evidence also captures the tensions, shifting alliances, aborted missions \u2014 there were at least three \u2014 and what prosecutors describe as an effort by the defendants to recast the operation as legitimate while seeking protection and political backing. The defendants\u2019 main argument is that Haitian national police officers and presidential security details had already killed Mo\u00efse before the Colombian commandos arrived at his home to assist in his arrest.<\/p>\n The communications were presented through testimony by FBI analyst Kaitlin Dayton, who spent three days on the stand walking jurors through a 900-page summary exhibit compiled from roughly 8,000 gigabytes of data taken from more than 100 electronic devices, including cellphones and a laptop in the United States, Colombia and Haiti.<\/p>\n Among them is a mysterious cell phone that prosecutors say forwarded a photo at 1:58 a.m. on July 7, 2021, of a dead Mo\u00efse lying beside his bed, his white shirt stained with blood and thin frame riddled with a dozen bullets.<\/a><\/p>\n There are other photos as well, including Intriago in front of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and meeting in Haiti with a former senator and a convicted cocaine trafficker who have both pleaded guilty and will testify for the government. Also in the exhibit are voice notes and draft contracts for infrastructure projects that prosecutors say the men hoped to secure from a post-Mo\u00efse government. They were shared among defendants, the Colombian commandos accused of carrying out the attack and a broader network of associates \u2014 some of whom have never been charged.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Defense questions former Haiti first lady\u2019s version of events in husband\u2019s slaying<\/a><\/p>\n For prosecutors, the communications offer a window into the plot\u2019s inner workings and its unraveling as suspects turned on one another while being hunted by Haitian authorities. For defense lawyers, it\u2019s a curated narrative.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a filtered version of everything that you looked at, correct?\u201d Jonathan Friedman, a lawyer for Haitian American defendant James Solages, asked Dayton. \u201cAnd the filtered version fits the narrative that the government obviously wants to portray to this jury.\u201d<\/p>\n He then pressed Dayton about whether text messages can be misinterpreted. She said yes, while maintaining that those assembled were \u201crelevant to the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Adjusting their story<\/p>\n In addition to Intriago and Solages, the other defendants are Arc\u00e1ngel Pretel Ortiz, who helped recruit the Colombian commandos through his and Intriago\u2019s Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, collectively known as CTU, and Walter Veintemilla,<\/a> a Broward mortgage broker who prosecutors say helped financed the plot through his Worldwide Capital Lending Group. A fifth defendant, Haiti-born doctor and pastor Christian Emmanuel Sanon, will be tried later due to health issues.<\/p>\n The messages largely echo elements of the plot previously reported by the Miami Herald<\/a>, including a failed effort to enlist Haitian gangs and a botched plan to kidnap Mo\u00efse and put him on an airplane after he returned in mid-June 2021 from an overseas visit to Turkey. But they also show the group splitting up into multiple chat threads as the operation neared July 7, raising questions about whether all were privy to the same plan.<\/p>\n They further suggest that the defendants quickly adjusted their accounts after the killing, a point prosecutors have insisted on while showing discussions about Mo\u00efse already being dead when the Colombian commandos stormed his private residence \u2014 a claim that has become central to the defense.<\/p>\n Bargain, betrayal and deception<\/p>\n Mo\u00efse\u2019s brazen killing plunged Haiti into a power vacuum marked by widespread gang-fueled violence. Even so, the messages show the defendants scrambling in the immediate aftermath to shape the country\u2019s future and their own.<\/p>\n At some point on July 7, Intriago, anxious to save his men and get his choice for Mo\u00efse\u2019s replacement quickly sworn into office, asked Pretel for three Haitians\u2019 cell numbers: Joseph F\u00e9lix Badio<\/a>, a former anti-corruption government official and confidant of the judge the group wanted to be sworn in as president; Joseph Jo\u00ebl John (also known as John Jo\u00ebl Joseph), a former senator who was poised to become the group\u2019s prime minister; and \u201cMidas,\u201d the codename for convicted cocaine trafficker and businessman Rodolphe \u201cDodof\u201d Jaar.<\/a><\/p>\n Badio shared several numbers with Intriago. One was for Charles, the chief of Haiti\u2019s national police, and the other was for Joseph Lambert, at the time head of the Haitian Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are to call Sen. Lambert,\u201d Badio urged Intriago. \u201cAnd ask him to set an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal deal, according to Dayton\u2019s testimony, involved Lambert installing Wendelle Coq-Th\u00e9lot<\/a>, a judge on Haiti\u2019s high court and close ally of Badio, as president, in exchange for making Lambert prime minister.<\/p>\n The plan never materialized, and the country soon descended into competing claims for power. But Badio\u2019s intervention underscores not just his central role in the scheme, but also how quickly he was willing to betray John and bargain for power.<\/p>\n When an anxious Intriago asked about \u201cthe madame judge\u201d \u2014 Coq-Th\u00e9lot \u2014 Badio replied in a voice note after forwarding Charles\u2019 number that it was \u201ctoo early\u201d to put her in.<\/p>\n \u201cHold on,\u201d Badio wrote on July 7, urging Intriago to remain calm even as he informed him that the Haitian police was ready to launch \u201can important battle\u201d against them.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll agree that Joseph F\u00e9lix Badio \u2026 he\u2019s an important person in this investigation, correct?\u201d Marissel Descalzo, a lawyer for Veintemilla, asked Dayton on cross-examination.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is present throughout the investigation,\u201d Dayton replied. \u201cFrom what we found in the phones, he is involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutor Jason Wu, highlighting some of the call logs, showed that Badio was in touch with multiple defendants on July 7, including participating in a conference call with Intriago and Pretel at 7:41 p.m. He also was in contact with John, dubbed \u201cJ3\u201d in the trial.<\/p>\n Last week, before the court recessed for Easter, John briefly took the stand, legs and hands shackled and dressed in a khaki-colored prison uniform. He is among six co-conspirators who agreed to testify for the government after pleading guilty.<\/p>\n Growing tensions<\/p>\n By the time Coq-Th\u00e9lot emerged as their preferred presidential choice, the alleged conspirators had sidelined Sanon, who had been removed from group chats, according to the threads presented by prosecutors. His role had been reduced to trying to come up with a payment for the former Colombian soldiers\u2019 $48,000 hotel bill.<\/p>\n The chats revealed that Sanon had been unable to secure financing or weapons, described as \u201ctools\u201d in conversation, and he was uncomfortable with the men bringing Haiti\u2019s G9 gang and its notorious leader, Jimmy \u201cBarbecue\u201d Ch\u00e9rizier,<\/a> into the plot. Equally troubling, Sanon\u2019s U.S. passport and Florida residence made him ineligible to be president under Haiti\u2019s Constitution.<\/p>\n In a heated exchange hours before the attack, Veintemilla expressed frustration with Intriago and Pretel over their lack of due diligence regarding Sanon.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to accept we failed,\u201d Veintemilla said about their banking on Sanon, to whom he had given a $175,000 line of credit through CTU. \u201cNo one verified who we were dealing with. In the case of Sanon, we were all at fault.\u201d<\/p>\n After the assassination, the tension intensified as panic set in.<\/p>\n Messages went unanswered and calls were missed. At 4:50 a.m. the morning of the assassination, Solages, 40, unable to reach Pretel on the phone, texted him: \u201cYou promised never to turn your back on us.\u201d Then, he demanded that Pretel, an FBI informant, get the State Department on the phone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of a war,\u201d Duberney Capador, one of the leaders of the Colombian commandos, texted when his call went unanswered.<\/p>\n Claims of U.S. ties<\/p>\n In their exchanges, defendants claim to either be in meetings with FBI or State Department officials, or to have contacts. Pretel, who was in touch with his FBI handler on July 7, even shared photos of himself going to the FBI building in Miramar, though prosecutors pointed out it was a Saturday when visitors are not typically received. Intriago, meanwhile, shared a photo of himself in front of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince while stating he went to deliver a letter to the U.S. ambassador announcing CTU\u2019s presence in Haiti.<\/p>\n Despite defendants\u2019 claims and that a number of them once worked as confidential sources for the U.S. government, prosecutors insist there was no U.S. government involvement in the deadly plot. They counter that the defendants are trying to use those connections to legitimize their criminal activities.<\/p>\n To drive home the point, prosecutors showed an exchange between Badio and Intriago after the killing. Badio urged Intriago to call someone by the name of Jean Robert Jean-Marie, who Badio claimed was a State Department official, and claimed U.S. troops were on the way.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is the one for help,\u201d Badio wrote Intriago on the afternoon of July 7.<\/p>\n Records introduced by the government show that Jean-Marie, who lives in Homestead and has not been interviewed by investigators, is not employed by the U.S. government. Still, he is among several individuals whose names have surfaced repeatedly during the trial but have not been charged.<\/a><\/p>\n Badio, who is tied to several suspects in the case, including John and a Haitian security firm implicated in the coup, has been indicted in Haiti, where he is appealing his charges, Badio has not been charged in the Miami federal case before U.S District Judge Jacqueline Becerra.<\/p>\n Still, his name keeps popping up and being raised by both prosecutors and the defense.<\/p>\n As the operation collapsed, the messages show the men scrambling for protection and escape routes.<\/p>\n \u201cI already sent some kind of help,\u201d Badio wrote at one point. No such assistance was ever sent, Dayton testified, noting that the FBI had reviewed four devices belonging to Badio.<\/p>\n Defense attorneys have suggested that there was deeper involvement in the plot by Charles, who has also been indicted in Haiti,<\/a> tied to the 18 minutes he took to respond to Mo\u00efse\u2019s call for help, and former Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry. They\u2019ve accused Charles of providing the vehicles the defendants used to storm the president\u2019s residence, and Henry of being in touch with Badio after the killing. They\u2019ve also accused the former prime minister of harboring Badio while he was on trying to evade police. Both Henry and Charles have denied the allegations against them.<\/p>\n Wu, one of the prosecutors, asked Dayton if she had seen previous contact between Intriago and Charles before July 7, and she said no. During cross-examination Descalzo also pressed her about Henry and whether she is aware of claims that Badio had close ties to him.<\/p>\n \u201cI have not seen that in the devices,\u201d Dayton said.<\/p>\n Multiple plots to oust Mo\u00efse<\/p>\n The text messages point to multiple plans targeting Mo\u00efse before he was finally killed.<\/p>\n In coded exchanges, the 53-year-old head of state was referred to as \u201cthe thief\u201d and the \u201crat,\u201d his home as \u201cthe rat\u2019s nest\u201d and the presidential palace as \u201cthe volcano.\u201d<\/p>\n The messages capture several turning points. At one point, Solages told someone by the name of Jimmy Thompson they had to abort a mission because Mo\u00efse had stayed overnight at the palace \u201cworking on creating a corrupt new government.\u201d<\/p>\n After the killing, Solages was again in contact with Thompson. Shortly before 5 a.m., Solages texted that the first phase was completed, but they were \u201cin big trouble.\u201d Eight policemen who had accompanied the group abandoned them \u201cwhen the party got real,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Solages wrote to Thompson that he was \u201cin very bad danger.\u201d In another conversation, sometime after 8 a.m. on July 7, Thompson asked Solages about the contractors and their roles in what had happened.<\/p>\n Solages, Dayton said, replied, \u201cThe contractor did it.\u201d<\/p>\n Solages\u2019 attorney suggested that the message was incomplete because his phone battery was dying. But prosecutor Wu introduced a photo showing Solages speaking on a phone, standing next to a man in camouflage, hours after the exchange and as police were trying to find the president\u2019s killers.<\/p>\n This story was originally published April 6, 2026 at 4:16 PM.<\/p>\n![\"Officials](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_203HaitiMoisetrial11NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_203HaitiMoisetrial11NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice and security personnel accompanied Martine Mo\u00efse (center), widow of Haitian President Jovenel Mo\u00efse and her daughter Jormalie Mo\u00efse (second from right) as they leave the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse after testifying for the second day as the government\u2019s first witness on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Miami. Federal prosecutors and defense lawyers delivered opening statements in the U.S. trial of four South Florida men charged in the assassination of Haiti\u2019s president. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n