Update: 2:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 21, 2025: This story updated with additional comment.<\/p>\n
Two North Texas men were indicted this week after federal authorities said they conspired to \u201cinvade\u201d Haiti. According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office for the Eastern District of Texas, Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, of Allen and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, of Argyle are accused of plotting to murder men on one of Haiti\u2019s islands and use the women and children on the island as \u201csex slaves.\u201d The two men were also indicted on a charge of production of child pornography.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019 attorney, John Helms, told The Dallas Morning News on Friday that Thomas would plead not guilty on Monday. Weisenburg\u2019s attorney, Clint Broden, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, the two men worked on the plot between August 2024 and July 2025, recruiting several people to sail to the island of Gonave, which is a part of Haiti. The two men planned to purchase a sailboat, firearms and ammunition, and recruit homeless people from Washington, D.C., as a \u201cmercenary force\u201d to invade the island and stage a coup d\u2019etat.<\/p>\n
Authorities said the two men made operating plans, learned the Haitian Creole language and enrolled in schools to learn skills for the invasion. The news release and indictment also said Thomas enlisted in the Air Force to learn military skills for the planned invasion.<\/p>\n
If convicted, the men face up to life in prison.<\/p>\n
Breaking News<\/p>\n
The indictment of the two North Texas men is a serious development in the case, and the potential consequences they face are severe. The plot to invade Haiti and commit violent crimes is a disturbing reminder of the dangers of extremism and the importance of law enforcement in preventing such acts.<\/p>\n
The two men, Gavin Rivers Weisenburg and Tanner Christopher Thomas, were accused of conspiring to invade Haiti, murder men on one of its islands, and use women and children as \u201csex slaves.\u201d They were also indicted on a charge of production of child pornography.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, the men planned to purchase a sailboat, firearms, and ammunition, and recruit homeless people from Washington, D.C., as a \u201cmercenary force\u201d to invade the island of Gonave and stage a coup d\u2019etat.<\/p>\n
If convicted, the men face up to life in prison.<\/p>\n
The news release and indictment did not specify how the authorities learned about the plot, but it is likely that the investigation involved a combination of intelligence gathering and law enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two North Texas Men Indicted for Conspiring to Invade Haiti Update: 2:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 21, 2025: This story updated with additional comment. The Indictment Two North Texas men were indicted this week after federal authorities said they conspired to \u201cinvade\u201d Haiti. According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office for the Eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":17359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-reports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/5XMEH6LLEZBCJOQOYVWJW5XF34.jpg?auth=8b90a4c3aa670d1e2cf8a83f15ccce724097fc67157c19b5ffc2cc56301d9e6f&quality=80&width=1200&height=630&focal=462,300","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17360,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357\/revisions\/17360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}