The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) confirmed that at least one of the men arrested for the killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moise was their informant, according to CNN, while several others may have had ties to the FBI.
Moise was gunned down at dawn last Wednesday, by attackers who reportedly claimed to be DEA agents raiding his home. Responding to an inquiry by CNN on Monday, the agency officially denied that the attackers were acting on its behalf, but confirmed that “at times, one of the suspects” detained by the Haitian authorities “was a confidential source to the DEA.”
JUST IN: Several of the men involved in the operation that killed Haiti's president previously worked as US law enforcement informants, sources say https://t.co/vhODefwIux
— CNN International (@cnni) July 12, 2021
Moreover, following the assassination “the suspect reached out to his contacts at the DEA,” which urged him to surrender to the local authorities. The DEA and the US State Department “provided information to the Haitian government that assisted in the surrender and arrest of the suspect and one other individual,” the agency said.
In a statement to Reuters, an unnamed law enforcement official sought to clarify that the suspect was not an active DEA informant at the time of the assisination.
The assassination involved at least 28 men, Haitian authorities said. Most of the suspects in their custody are Colombian nationals, mercenaries hired through a US security company based in Florida.
At least three of those detained are US citizens, however. One of them is Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63. He was arrested on Monday and is suspected of organizing the assassination, Police Chief Leon Charles said at a press conference.
CNN also reported that several of the suspects “had US ties, including working as informants for the FBI,” but cited anonymous sources briefed on the matter. Unlike the DEA, the FBI did not confirm or deny these reports, saying only that it uses “lawful sources to collect intelligence” as part of its investigations.