A chance meeting and a fugitive linked to the assassination of a president is captured

A senior Haitian police official was recently shopping at his local supermarket when someone caught his attention: the country’s most wanted man.

The official, Ernst Dorfeuille, immediately recognized Joseph Félix Badio, a former military officer who had focused on drug and corruption cases at the Ministries of the Interior and Justice, as having once worked with him.

Now Mr. Badio was a fugitive, the target of a warrant to question him about the key role police say he played in a notorious crime: the July 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse.

Mr. Dorfeuille called for help and within minutes four police officers armed with assault rifles arrived and detained Mr. Badio as he was about to drive away from the supermarket outside Haiti’s capital.

Mr. Dorfeuille confirmed to The Times details of Mr. Badio’s arrest that have appeared in the Haitian news media, but declined a fuller interview.

How Mr. Badio, who was accused by some of the men involved in the assassination plot of ordering Mr. Moïse’s killing, managed to evade Haitian authorities for more than two years remains unclear.

When he was apprehended, Mr. Badio was driving a vehicle registered to a Justice Department employee, according to police.

His arrest sparked reactions of joyful surprise among many Haitians, who have grown cynical in a country where corruption and impunity are often the norm.

Pierre Espérance, executive director of a leading Haitian human rights organization, said Mr. Badio’s apparently accidental arrest raised questions about how aggressively the search for him was being conducted.

“He was untouchable because he knew too much,” Mr. Espérance said.

Mr Moïse was shot in his bedroom in the early hours of July 7, 2021, after police said his official residence was attacked by a team of 20 Colombian former soldiers hired by a Miami-area security firm.

There are two parallel investigations into the murder in Haiti and South Florida. Dozens of people are imprisoned in Haiti, but no one has been charged so far.

In Miami, 11 people were charged in federal court in February for their roles in the conspiracy. Three have pleaded guilty, including one of the Colombians, Germán Rivera, who was given a life sentence last month. All three were charged with conspiracy to kidnap and murder someone outside the United States.

Mr. Badio, described in a detailed Haitian police report as the “orchestra leader” of the plot, has not been charged in the killing. In Haiti, official charges often come much later in the legal process.

Haitian police said Mr. Badio rented two vehicles transporting the president’s killers as well as a house on the same street as Mr. Moïse’s residence to conduct surveillance.

After his arrest, Mr. Badio briefly appeared before a judge and was then transferred to Haiti’s main prison. Jonas Mezilus, a lawyer representing Mr. Badio, said that because his client had not been formally charged, he did not know how he would plead.

A year ago, Mr. Badio issued an audio statement to a Haitian news media proclaiming his innocence, saying he was being made a “scapegoat” for Mr. Moïse’s murder and that he was willing to talk to authorities, including the FBI.

“I’m available today,” he said. “I am a slave to the law.”

US court documents filed as part of the South Florida indictment point to an unnamed “co-conspirator” who ordered the president’s assassination.

Some attorneys representing suspects charged in South Florida believe Mr. Badio is the co-conspirator and could ultimately face criminal charges in the United States as well. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Badio’s status.

Given that Mr. Badio was never questioned about Mr. Moïse’s murder, legal experts say he can provide vital answers to a case still shrouded in mystery.

U.S. prosecutors allege that the owners of the Miami-area security firm Counter Terrorist Unit planned and financed the killing in an effort to profit from lucrative contracts under a new administration. But they have left open the question of whether there were other masterminds in Haiti and what role they may have played in the plot.

Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry has praised Mr Badio’s arrest. “This is a major step forward in the investigation,” he said in a statement.

But Mr. Henry himself has been linked to the killing by Haitian authorities, who say phone records show that Mr. Badio called Mr. Henry several times in the days before and in the hours after Mr. Moïse’s killing.

When a judge in the case last year asked Mr. Henry to answer questions about his relationship with Mr. Badio, he was fired by the justice minister and fled the country. The judge wrote at the time that there were “enough compromising elements” to prosecute Mr. Henry.

Mr Henry has denied any involvement. In response to questions for this article, his spokesman said Mr. Henry had received many phone calls on the day of Mr. Moïse’s murder, “but none to Mr. Badio.”

Mr. Badio is a former Haitian military officer who worked in strategic communications before joining the government. The Times contacted a dozen former and current officials who worked with him, but none would say anything on the record.

His father emigrated to New York in the early 1960s, according to a person who worked with Mr. Badio in the Haitian government, who asked to remain anonymous because he feared for his safety while speaking publicly about Mr. Badio.

The younger Mr. Badio lived briefly in New York and attended Medgar Evers College, part of the City University of New York system, according to his Facebook page. The college confirmed that someone named Joseph Félix Badio studied there from 1992 to 1993, although there was no evidence that he graduated.

He later bought a four-bedroom house in a residential neighborhood in Rockland County, just north of New York City, where his wife and two children still live, according to property and phone records. A Times reporter visited the house, but no one answered the door.

The person who worked with him said Mr. Badio was fascinated by weapons and everything related to security and intelligence. According to several people who had worked with him and followed his career, he also seemed resentful of those in power who did not sufficiently recognize his talents.

“Badio was extremely well connected, not just on the political spectrum, but also in security, at a pretty high level,” said Jake Johnston, a Haiti expert at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington who has researched Mr Badio’s track record.

Referring to Mr. Badio’s superiors in the Haitian government, Mr. Johnston said: “He was also someone that these people relied on to handle things. He had a reputation as someone who was always around to get things done.”

Mr. Espérance, the director of the human rights group, said he met with Mr. Badio 10 years ago. He recalled that Mr. Badio “talked about his relationship with U.S. agencies, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, but you never knew if it was fake or not.”

A State Department spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Badio had attended an anti-gang conference in the United States in 2009.

Two months before Mr. Moïse’s murder, Mr. Badio was fired from a Justice Department anti-corruption unit for taking $30,000 from a jailed man accused of killing a well-known owner of a local radio station, according to a letter from Mr. Badio’s boss at the ministry, as well as a press release from the ministry.

The transcripts, which point to Mr. Badio’s involvement in the plot, are part of the prosecution’s evidence in the South Florida case and have been reviewed by The Times.

In his audio message to the Haitian news channel, Mr. Badio denounced unnamed members of the Haitian government, who he said were also involved in the assassination plot.

“If you think you can get away with executing me,” he said, “you’re knocking on the wrong door.”

Camille Baker contributed reporting from Rockland County, NY, and Harold Isaac from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.