Charles said officers found a hat with the logo of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, four licence plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and correspondence, among other things, in Sanon’s house in Haiti.

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Twenty-six former Colombian soldiers are suspected in the killing and 23 have been arrested, along with three Haitians. Charles said five suspects are still at large and at least three have been killed.

“They are dangerous individuals,” Charles said. “I’m talking commando, specialised commando.”

A US Drug Enforcement Administration official said one of the suspects in Moise’s assassination was at times a confidential source to the agency, and that the suspect reached out to his contacts at the DEA after the killing and was urged to surrender. The official said the DEA and a US State Department official provided information to Haiti’s government that led to the surrender and arrest of one suspect and one other individual, whom it didn’t identify.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s national police chief, General Jorge Luis Vargas, said that a Florida-based enterprise, CTU Security, used its company credit card to buy 19 plane tickets from Bogota to Santo Domingo for the Colombian suspects. Most arrived in the Dominican Republic in June and moved into Haiti within weeks, Vargas said.

He said that Dimitri Herard, head of general security at Haiti’s National Palace, flew to Colombia, Ecuador and Panama in the months before the assassination, and Colombian police are investigating whether he had any role in recruiting the mercenaries. In Haiti, prosecutors are seeking to interrogate Herard over the assassination.

Charles said Sanon was in contact with CTU Security and that the company recruited the suspects in the killing. He said Sanon flew into Haiti in June on a private jet accompanied by several of the alleged gunmen.

The suspects’ initial mission was to protect Sanon, but they later received a new order: to arrest the president, Charles said.

“The operation started from there,” he said, adding that 22 additional suspects joined the group.

Charles said that after Moise was killed, one suspect phoned Sanon, who got in touch with two people believed to be masterminds of the plot. He did not identify them or say if police know who they are.

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Sanon’s associate said he attended a recent meeting in Florida with Sanon and about a dozen other people, including Antonio Enmanuel Intriago Valera, a Venezuelan émigré to Miami who runs CTU Security. He said a presentation was made for rebuilding the country, including its water system, converting trash into energy and fixing roads.

He said Sanon asked why the security team accompanying him to Haiti were all Colombians. Sanon was told Haitians couldn’t be trusted and that the system is corrupt, the associate said. He said Sanon called him from Haiti a few days before the assassination and said the Colombians had disappeared.

“I’m all by myself. Who are these people? I don’t know what they are doing,” the associate quoted Sanon as saying.

Sanon “is completely gullible,” the associate added. “He thinks God is going to save everything.”

Sanon has lived in Broward County in Florida, as well as in Hillsborough County on the Gulf Coast. Records also show he resided in Kansas City, Missouri. He filed for bankruptcy in Florida in 2013 and identified himself as a medical doctor in a video on YouTube titled “Leadership for Haiti”.

However, records show Sanon has never been licensed to practice medicine or any other occupation covered by Florida’s Department of Health.

Sanon said in court papers filed in a 2013 bankruptcy case in Florida that he was a physician and a pastor at the Tabarre Evangelical Tabernacle in Haiti. He said he had stakes in enterprises including the Organisation of Rome Haiti, which he identified as a non-governmental organisation, a radio station in Haiti and medical facilities in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

At the time of his bankruptcy, he and his wife reported income of $US5000 per month, and a home in Brandon, Florida, valued at about $US143,000, with a mortgage of more than $US367,000. A federal bankruptcy trustee later determined they hid ownership of about 14 hectates in Haiti from creditors.

Florida records show Sanon started about a dozen businesses over the last 20 years, all of which failed, including ones that appeared related to medical imaging, physical therapy, fossil fuel trading, real estate and veganism.

In a 2011 YouTube video, Sanon denounced Haiti’s leadership as corrupt, accusing them of stripping the country of its resources, saying: “They don’t care about the country, they don’t care about the people.”

He falsely claimed that Haiti has uranium, oil and other resources that have been taken by government officials.

“Nine million people can’t be in poverty when we have so much resources in the country. It’s impossible,” he said. “We need new leadership that will change the way of life.”

Sanon’s arrest comes as a growing number of politicians have challenged interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who is currently in charge of Haiti with backing from police and the military.

US officials, including representatives from the US Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, met Sunday with Joseph, designated Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s dismantled Senate, whom supporters have named as provisional president in a challenge to Joseph, according to the White House National Security Council.

The delegation also met with Haiti’s National Police and reviewed the security of critical infrastructure, it said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the delegation received a request for additional assistance. She said a potential deployment of US troops remained “under review,” but also suggested that Haiti’s political uncertainty was a complicating factor.

“What was clear from their trip is that there is a lack of clarity about the future of political leadership,” Psaki said.

US President Joe Biden said he was closely following developments, adding: “The people of Haiti deserve peace and security, and Haiti’s political leaders need to come together for the good of their country.”

Meanwhile, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Haiti’s request for security assistance is being examined.

The United Nations has been involved in Haiti on and off since 1990, but the last UN military peacekeepers left the country in 2017.

AP