Overview
- Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, were charged in the Eastern District of Texas with conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country and with producing child pornography.
- Prosecutors allege the pair planned to recruit members of Washington, D.C.’s homeless population as a mercenary force to seize Gonâve Island, purchase a sailboat, and acquire firearms and ammunition.
- Court records describe preparatory steps including studying Haitian Creole, Weisenburg’s enrollment in a Texas fire academy and travel to Thailand seeking sailing lessons, and Thomas’s enlistment in the U.S. Air Force.
- An updated filing notes Thomas changed his assignment to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, which prosecutors say was intended to be closer to the capital for recruiting efforts.
- Both defendants remain in federal custody with no trial date set, the indictment references unnamed co‑conspirators, and the case is being investigated by the FBI, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the Celina Police Department.