A former Haitian police officer turned naturalized United States citizen has entered a guilty plea to federal charges connected to a coordinated, multi-year scheme to smuggle hundreds of firearms out of Florida and into Haiti, U.S. law enforcement officials announced this week.
Fifty-three-year-old Jean Robert Casimir, a resident of Lauderhill, Florida, pleaded guilty on August 4 to three counts: conspiracy to commit arms trafficking, illegal arms trafficking itself, and willful violations of U.S. federal export control regulations. His plea formally acknowledges his role as a key participant in a broad, transnational firearms trafficking network, according to official court records.
Court documents lay out a nearly four and a half year smuggling operation that ran from at least August 2020 through December 2024. Over that period, Casimir orchestrated the illegal export of at least 140 firearms from the U.S. to Haiti without securing the mandatory federal export licenses required for such shipments.
To build the arsenal that was ultimately smuggled abroad, Casimir acquired at least 108 firearms from federally licensed gun sellers in the U.S., and an additional 30 to 35 weapons from a private U.S. citizen based in Florida. The seized weaponry included a wide range of lethal hardware: multiple models of assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols, and 12-gauge shotguns.
To evade detection by U.S. customs and border officials, Casimir and his co-conspirators developed an elaborate smuggling method. The group modified industrial air compressors by cutting them open, packing disassembled firearms inside the hollow units in insulating foam to muffle movement and hide the weapons from scans, then re-welding the units closed. The modified compressors were then shipped by sea from the Miami metropolitan area to Haiti, mixed in with legitimate cargo to avoid attracting attention.
Law enforcement took Casimir into custody at his Lauderhill residence on December 16, 2024. A federal grand jury returned a formal indictment against him on January 23, 2025.
The joint investigation is being overseen by senior national security and law enforcement leaders: John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s National Security Division; Jeanine Ferris Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Brett D. Skiles, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Miami Field Office; and José R. Figueroa, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami, part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The case is the product of a collaborative probe by the FBI Miami Office, HSI Washington D.C., and HSI Miami, with critical operational support provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Prosecution of the case is being led by Ariel Dean, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Beau Barnes, a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s National Security Division, with additional support from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall of the District of Columbia also provided key assistance to the prosecution team.
The guilty plea marks a significant milestone in ongoing federal efforts to crack down on illegal firearms trafficking that fuels instability and violence in Haiti, where the flow of unregulated U.S.-sourced weapons has long been a major concern for national security officials on both sides of the border.