Head of Haitian presidential guard in custody as hunt for masterminds behind assassination continues - The Washington Post

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The head of security at the presidential palace here has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into the mysterious assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, who was killed last week in his home in the hills above the capital.

The detention of Dimitri Hérard was confirmed by Bed-Ford Claude, a Haitian prosecutor; Israel Jacky Cantave, a spokesperson for Haiti’s prime minister; and Carl Martin, a close friend and colleague of Hérard’s. Much public anger has been directed against Hérard, as Haitians wonder how a team of alleged assassins appeared to easily infiltrate Moïse’s residence only to be later swiftly taken into custody.

It isn’t clear on what charges, if any, Hérard is being held. “The justice [system] wants him to answer questions,” Claude told The Washington Post.

Haitian police on Wednesday evening announced the arrest of two new suspects, including a former top police officer, as their investigation continues. Four high-ranking members of the president’s security detail are also being held in isolation as authorities continue to track down other fugitives, police chief Léon Charles told reporters during a news conference.

It wasn’t clear if Hérard was among the four people whom Charles referenced. A senior Haitian police official didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment on Hérard’s detention.

“The investigation is very advanced,” Charles said, according to the Associated Press. “We are looking for these assassins, and wherever they go we need to capture them, arrest them and bring them to justice.”

Officers searched the home of Gilbert Dragon, a former police superintendent and one of the two people whose arrest was announced Wednesday. They confiscated several bullet cartridges, firearms and bulletproof vests, police said in a statement.

Dragon is close to Hérard, the presidential guard’s chief, according to Pierre Esperance, head of a human rights group that has extensively studied the country’s security forces. Dragon is also a close associate of Guy Philippe, one of Haiti’s best-known rogue revolutionaries — now behind bars in the United States.

Philippe, a former Haitian police officer who left the force about the same time as Dragon, led a successful 2004 coup against then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was jailed for nine years in the United States in 2017 for conspiracy to launder drug money.

According to the Miami Herald, Philippe admitted he accepted between $1.5 million and $3.5 million in cocaine profits from Colombian traffickers for allowing them to use Haiti to ship cocaine to the United States between 1999 and 2003. By pleading guilty to a single money-laundering conspiracy charge, Philippe avoided the risk of a trial on the initial charge of participating in a drug-trafficking scheme, the newspaper wrote.

Conviction could have meant a life sentence.

The other suspect named by police on Wednesday, a Haitian man identified as Reynaldo Corvington, is accused of providing the suspects with housing and giving them sirens to use on top of their cars. He is alleged to have worked with James Solages, a U.S. citizen who was detained in recent days, according to the Associated Press.

Corvington owns a private security company called Corvington Courier & Security Service, which he established in 1982, according to its website, which provides tips on how to survive a kidnapping.

Authorities in Haiti are investigating Moïse’s killing with help from senior FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials and Colombia’s government. Bogotá said at least 18 Colombian nationals, many of them former soldiers, have been arrested and remain detained in Haiti on suspicion of committing the assassination. Three other people of Haitian ancestry also have been arrested and at least three suspects killed, as police continue to investigate those detained to identify the masterminds behind the slaying.

One of the leading suspects is Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a 62-year-old Haitian man with long-standing ties to Florida, who police say was aiming to assume the country’s presidency. They allege that Sanon, who is in custody, recruited some of the assailants accused of helping kill Moïse through a Venezuelan security firm based in the United States by telling them they would be his bodyguards. Moïse was killed inside his home early on the morning of July 7.

An American humanitarian worker who says he lived for three months in Sanon’s palatial Port-au-Prince home after a devastating earthquake in 2010 described him as a “strange person.”

Ryan Jackson, a physician who was working for a Miami-based nonprofit that partnered with Sanon’s foundation to deliver earthquake relief, said the Haitian offered him a job in return for Jackson’s help publicizing his activities.

“Having an American doctor on staff was like a feather in his cap,” Jackson told The Post. “I refused. I did not like him.”

Sanon could not be reached for comment, and it wasn’t clear if he has retained an attorney. “

A number of suspects in Moïse’s killing remain on the run. They include John Joël Joseph, a Haitian political rival to Moïse’s party, whom police have reportedly accused of providing weapons used in the attack.

Police are also seeking Rodolphe Jaar, who was indicted in 2013 in a U.S. federal court on charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela through Haiti to the United States, according to the Associated Press.

Pannett reported from Sydney.

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