Overview
- Federal prosecutors charged Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, with conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography.
- The indictment alleges a plan to attack Haiti’s Gonâve Island, kill male residents, and force women and children into sexual servitude to fulfill what prosecutors described as “rape fantasies.”
- Prosecutors say the pair intended to buy a sailboat and weapons and recruit men from Washington, D.C.’s homeless community to serve as a mercenary force for a staged coup.
- Court records describe preparatory steps including studying Haitian Creole, Weisenburg’s enrollment at a Texas fire academy and travel to Thailand for sailing instruction, and Thomas’s enlistment in the U.S. Air Force with a reassignment near Washington, D.C.
- Both defendants remain in federal custody, face up to life on the conspiracy count and 15 to 30 years on the child‑pornography charge, the indictment references unnamed co‑conspirators, and no trial date has been set.