US Moves to Extradite 18 Held in Haiti President Moise Assassination Eighteen suspects detained in Haiti over the 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moise are awaiting extradition to face trial in Florida, as US prosecutions of other defendants continue. Eighteen suspects arrested in Haiti over the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise were awaiting extradition to the United States on Sunday, September 20, 2026, according to the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quinones. Quinones announced the development in a post on X, saying the move marks the next major phase in the pursuit of accountability for the killing. He said the suspects will face trial in Florida. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads, to those who financed it, facilitated it, supported it or committed crimes to make it possible, Quinones wrote. Five years later, we are still bringing defendants before American courts, and we are not finished, he added.Quinones did not identify the suspects, and a Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. The suspects still in Haiti awaiting trial include more than a dozen Colombian soldiers, a former Haitian police officer and Joseph Badio. Badio is a former employee of Haiti's Ministry of Justice who worked in an anti-corruption unit.He is considered a key suspect and was arrested in Haiti in October 2023 after being on the run for more than two years. Quinones said 30 people have been indicted in Moise's killing. FBI Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles noted multiple arrests in the US and abroad on Sunday. Skiles said the FBI and others remain steadfast in ensuring that all individuals who allegedly sought profit from the assassination of a head of state are held fully accountable.Diana Marcela Arbelaez Llano, the wife of one of the suspects, said in a phone interview Sunday from Colombia that the extradition caught her and the relatives of the other suspects by surprise. We never imagined that the United States would have taken them so suddenly, she said, adding that she hopes they have the opportunity to prove their innocence. Arbelaez said all the detained Colombians are very sick given the notoriously inhumane conditions in Haitian prisons.While she hopes their health will improve in the US, she remains worried. I do not know why the United States would have taken them, she said. It is a state of total uncertainty. Relatives of the Colombian suspects had previously complained about repeated delays in the Haitian judicial process following their arrest in 2021.The investigation was stalled by gang violence, death threats and a crumbling judicial system. In October 2025, justice officials in Haiti asked the US and Canada for help after a local court of appeals ordered a new investigation into Moise's killing. It was the third inquiry of its kind since he was fatally shot at his private residence in July 2021. The previous investigations stalled because Haitian judges kept resigning from the case, fearing for their lives.Gangs also seized control of the downtown Port-au-Prince courthouse where the judges were interrogating suspects. The extradition comes as the US continues to prosecute and sentence multiple other suspects in the case. In May, a jury in Florida convicted four men in the killing, and at least five others have pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences. Those recently convicted include Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages, all of whom pleaded not guilty.A jury found them guilty of conspiring to kill or kidnap Haiti's elected leader and providing material support for the plot. Still awaiting trial is Christian Sanon, a Haitian-American citizen whom authorities said was initially picked by the alleged conspirators to replace Moise. Once in power, the plan was for him to award contracts to a company known as CTU for infrastructure projects, security forces and military equipment.Ortiz and Intriago were principals for CTU, which stood for Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security. Meanwhile, Veintemilla was a principal of Worldwide Capital Lending Group. Both companies were based in South Florida. Suspects who previously pleaded guilty in US federal court include a retired Colombian army officer and a Haitian-Chilean businessman who was once an informant for the US government.Authorities said key fugitives in the case include Dimitri Herard, ex-head of security at Haiti's National Palace, who escaped last year after a powerful gang federation stormed Haiti's two biggest prisons.