A Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) official confirmed that a suspect allegedly involved in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was a former informant to the agency.
A DEA official told Fox News and other news outlets Tuesday that “At times, one of the suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was a confidential source to the DEA.”
After the assassination of Moïse earlier this week, the suspect reached out to his DEA contacts, while a DEA official called on him to surrender to local authorities, the spokesperson added.
“DEA is aware of reports that President Moïse’s assassins yelled ‘DEA’ at the time of their attack. These individuals were not acting on behalf of DEA,” the spokesperson continued.
Haitian authorities last week arrested two Haitian-American men, Joseph Vincent, 55, and James Solages, 35, and charged them with joining 26 Colombians in the fatal attack on Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
It’s not clear which suspect, if either, was the DEA informant.
A third Haitian-American, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was arrested on Sunday by Haitian authorities. They accused Sanon of being the mastermind behind the assassination.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) was asked by Haitian officials to assist in an investigation into the attack.
“An initial assessment has been conducted in Haiti by senior U.S. officials,” said spokesman Anthony Coley, reported Reuters. “The department will also investigate whether there were any violations of U.S. criminal law in connection with this matter.”
Solages described himself online as a “certified diplomatic agent” and the former “chief commander of bodyguards” for the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. Those statements were made on the website of a charity he ran, which on Thursday removed the statements.
“An unidentified group of individuals, some of whom were speaking in Spanish, attacked the private residence of the President of the Republic and mortally wounded him,” Prime Minister Claude Joseph said in a statement about the attack last week, adding that the suspects were armed with “high-caliber weapons.”
Moïse, 53, and his wife were attacked at about 1 a.m. local time on July 7 in Port-au-Prince, said Joseph.
“The security situation of the country is under the control of the Haitian National Police and the Haitian Armed Forces,” he added in the statement. “All measures are being taken to guarantee the continuity of the State and to protect the nation. Democracy and the Republic will triumph.”
The Epoch Times has contacted the DEA for comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
