U.S. authorities have arrested four more people in the slaying of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, including the owner of a Miami-area security company that hired former soldiers from Colombia for the mission
By GISELA SALOMON and DÁNICA COTO – Associated Press
The squad of former Colombian soldiers are among dozens of suspects who carried out the July 2021 attack that authorities say originally was envisioned to be a coup rather than an assassination. The plotters had hoped to reap lucrative contracts under a new administration once Moïse was out of the way, investigators allege.
“This was both a human tragedy and an assault on core democratic principles,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew G. Olsen.
Antonio “Tony” Intriago, 59, a Venezuelan-American who owned CTU Security that hired the Colombians, is charged with conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person outside the U.S. among other charges. CTU company representative Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, 50, a Colombian-born resident of the U.S., faces the same charges.
Florida-based U.S. financier Walter Veintemilla, 54, of Weston, Fla., is accused of funding the operation. A fourth suspect, Frederick Joseph Bergmann Jr., 64, of Tampa, is accused of smuggling goods including 20 CTU-branded ballistic vests disguised as medical X-ray vests and school supplies.
Intriago was known among plotters as “The General” and Pretel as “Colonel Gabriel,” according to authorities.