US Court Sentences Former DEA Informant to Life in Prison for Involvement in Haiti Assassination

A former informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been sentenced to life in prison, while another man pleaded guilty in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s last president, Jovenel Moise, in 2021.

These individuals are part of a group of 11 defendants accused of plotting to kill Moise by employing a team of Colombian mercenaries who attacked his residence in Port-au-Prince. Among the four defendants who have been sentenced in Miami, all have received life sentences.

Moise was shot in his bedroom during a nighttime raid, his assassination resulting in a political power vacuum that has allowed violent gangs to expand their influence over much of the capital.

The former informant, Joseph Vincent, who is Haitian-American, admitted to aiding the plot by offering political counsel and facilitating meetings with community leaders. He had also pretended to be a U.S. government official, according to court documents.

On the same day, Frederick Joseph Bergmann Jr., a Florida resident, pleaded guilty to charges including providing false information related to exports. Bergmann Jr. had been arrested along with three others about a year ago; U.S. authorities alleged that he assisted in funding the mercenaries’ accommodations in Haiti and helped ship bulletproof vests there through falsified documents. He faces a potential sentence of up to 20 years.

A separate investigation is currently ongoing in Haiti, with requests made for interviews with key figures such as Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Moise’s de facto successor, and his widow, Martine Moise.

Since Moise’s assassination, heavily armed gangs, reportedly supplied with firearms principally trafficked from the U.S., have significantly increased their power. Their ongoing turf wars have triggered a humanitarian crisis, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The United Nations recently reported that January was the most violent month in Haiti in over two years, with over 1,100 instances of killings, injuries, or kidnappings.

Anti-government protests erupted leading up to February 7, the date by which Prime Minister Henry had promised to resign. However, he later reversed this commitment, claiming that security must first be restored to ensure free and fair elections. Haiti’s last elections took place in 2016, and the terms of its last senators expired in January of the previous year.