MIAMI — A convicted Haitian drug trafficker pleaded guilty Friday to providing money to pay for weapons, food and lodging for Colombian commandos and others suspected of executing the fatal shooting of Haiti’s president, marking the first guilty plea in the murder conspiracy case in Miami federal court.
Rodolphe Jaar, 50, who cooperated with U.S. investigators in a major cocaine smuggling probe a decade ago, is hoping that same strategy might help him avoid a potential life sentence for providing “material support” in the conspiracy to kidnap and kill Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021. The deadly plot was coordinated among various suspects in South Florida, Haiti and Colombia, including Jaar and 10 others who have been charged by indictment in Miami.
Federal prosecutor Monica Castro said the defendant not only provided funds to support the assassination plan but also paid bribes to Haitian security officers so they would stand down when the Colombian commandos allegedly killed Moïse at his residence outside Port-au-Prince in the middle of the night.
