A bizarre and alarming incident unfolded in Port-au-Prince on February 17, 2019, when Haitian police arrested eight individuals — five Americans and three others — who were found carrying an arsenal of weapons including rifles, pistols, drones, and satellite phones in an unlicensed vehicle.
Among those arrested were reported former U.S. Navy SEALs, a former private military contractor, and two Serbian nationals. The group’s exact mission in Haiti was not immediately clear, but Haitian authorities stated that the men appeared to have been operating outside any official or authorized capacity.
Haitian Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond confirmed the nationalities of those detained and said the government would conduct a full investigation. The incident quickly became the subject of intense speculation, with some Haitian media outlets reporting that the group had been hired to facilitate the transfer of tens of millions of dollars from a PetroCaribe account under joint government control to a private account controlled solely by President Moïse.
The arrests added a dramatic and alarming dimension to Haiti’s already volatile political crisis, raising questions about the use of foreign operatives on Haitian soil and fueling further public outrage.