Four Men Arrested By US Officials In Connection With Assassination Of Haitian President Jovenel Moise

In connection with Haitian President Jovenel Moise's assassination, U.S. authorities arrested four men in Florida on Tuesday.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, Frederick Bergmann, 64; Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, 50; Walter Veintemilla, 54; and Antonio Intriago, 59; are accused of being involved in a conspiracy to murder Moise.

The office shared that while three of them are American citizens, Ortiz is a Colombian national but also a U.S. permanent resident of Miami.

NBC News reported that with these arrests, 11 people face charges in the Southern District of Florida in connection with the murder of Moise, who was shot 12 times at his home near Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021.

Intriago is the owner of CTU Security, which is a company based in Florida and allegedly helped recruit the killers.

According to the Justice Department, Ortiz is also a "principal" representative of the firm.

Veintemilla allegedly funded the deadly operation through his company -- Worldwide Capital Lending Group. It is said to have extended a $175,000 line of credit to CTU and sent money for ammunition that could be used in the assassination.

Intriago's attorney told the New York Times that he "intends to enter a not guilty plea."

Veintemilla's lawyer will also reportedly plead not guilty.

At the time of the assassination, armed men who claimed to be U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents entered Moise's compound in Port-au-Prince and shot him. His wife was also injured in the attack, reported Al Jazeera.

Haiti, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, has not only suffered from natural disasters but also gang violence. The situation worsened in the country after the assassination.

Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, told reporters on Tuesday that while the murder of Moise happened in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, "most of the planning, funding and direction of the plot to violently overthrow" him took place in America.

He added that it appears that "money and power were the opportunities that fuelled the plot" to overthrow Moise.

Matt Olsen, assistant attorney general for national security at the U.S. Justice Department, said that a central tenet of every democracy is that those who want to change their "government must do so peacefully — through ballots, not bullets."

He added that these defendants thought they could secure "Haitian immunity for their crime, and we will now deliver justice in a U.S. courtroom."