US men charged with plotting to seize Caribbean island
Two US men have been indicted for allegedly plotting an armed operation to take control of a Caribbean island, kill its male population, and enslave the women and children, US prosecutors have announced.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, both from the Dallas area, “have conspired to recruit and lead an unlawful expeditionary force” to Ile de la Gonave, a tropical island with around 100,000 residents that is part of the Republic of Haiti.
The plan, reportedly discussed between August 2024 and July 2025, aimed to stage a coup d’etat “for the purpose of carrying out their rape fantasies.”
“Weisenburg and Thomas intended to murder all of the men on the island so that they could then turn all of the women and children into their sex slaves,” prosecutors said on Thursday, adding that both were charged with “conspiracy to murder, maim, or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography.”
Investigators claim the pair had planned to buy a sailboat and firearms and also sought to recruit homeless people in the Washington, DC area to form an armed group.
The suspects reportedly undertook “numerous overt acts,” including studying the local language, preparing operational plans, and exploring training programs in order to “acquire skills relevant to the invasion plan.” Officials said Thomas enlisted in the US Air Force to receive military training.
Lawyer David Finn, who represents Weisenburg, described the indictment as “simply an allegation” and urged the public to "reserve judgment and don’t buy into the hype."
"If your initial response to the government’s press release was, ‘That sounds crazy, impossible, and absurd,’ you might be on to something important," he said, as quoted by Fox.
The conspiracy charge to murder in a foreign country carries a potential life sentence, while the child pornography offense is punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison.
