Earlier this week, the Haitian police arrested Emmanuel Sanon, a medical doctor who worked in the Boynton Beach area. The chief of police, Léon Charles, reported that some of the items found in Sanon’s house included a hat with DEA written on it and a cache of arms and ammunition. Sanon is said to be an alleged mastermind of the president’s assassination as he is seen criticizing the Haitian government on several videos going around. Sanon had hoped to take over as the president of Haiti in the aftermath of the attack.
In police custody is also one suspect, Joseph Gertand Vincent, alongside another South Florida Haitian émigré named James Solages, a maintenance director in a Lantana senior living center till April, following the assassination of the country’s president. The two are linked to Sanon and said to have been his allies in executing the president’s murder.
The 55 years old Vincent is said to have first been arrested for filing false information on the U.S. passport application more than twenty years ago and later became an occasional DEA informant. The suspect purportedly reached out to the DEA following Moise’s killing, which raised suspicion of his involvement in the murder. This forced the DEA to reveal one of its sources but denies having a hand in the monumental events that took place in Haiti. In a statement released to the press, the DEA stated that they were aware that the suspected assassins shouted “DEA” during the attack and were not acting on their behalf at all cost.
A close source to Joseph Gertand Vincent reported that the suspect worked as a paid informant who worked together with the DEA in seeing that drug trafficking targets, including one Guy Philipe, were arrested in early 2017.
Philipe, who was 48 years then, had been declared wanted for more than a decade in the United States, was put to custody in January 2017 in Haiti by Federal DEA agents. Joseph Vincent is reported to have been with the Haitian National Police officer as they turned Philipe over to DEA agents for the Miami flight. Philipe was then charged with drug trafficking by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Miami under a 2005 sealed indictment. Being an elected senator in the Haitian parliament from the Grand’Anse area for a six-year term, Philipe then sought his indictment dismissed based on his entitlement to immunity from arrest, but his efforts bore no fruits. He later pleaded guilty to a drug-related money laundering conspiracy charge that accused him of taking bribes to protect cocaine smugglers and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Anthony Coley, a DOJ spokesman, expressed the continued support by the U.S. Justice Department to the Haitian government in reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding the attack. He went further and stated that the department would investigate whether there were any violations of the U.S. criminal law connected with the assassination matter.
The three suspects are yet to be made available for any interviews to confirm their part of the story. Investigations are still underway, and the Haitian authorities are yet to determine the truth behind all the allegations made against the three suspects.
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