A Key West man has pled guilty to charges of smuggling firearms from Florida to Haiti, in an announcement made on April 11th by Sue J. Bai, who heads the Justice Department's National Security Division, along with U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., and the FBI's Miami Field Office Acting Special Agent in Charge Justin Fleck; Jean Wiltene Eugene, the man in question, faces serious consequences for his actions with a scheduled sentencing set for July 22nd, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Documents from the court reveal that Eugene, a 57-year-old U.S. citizen born in Haiti, exported more than two firearms to Haiti from the United States around September 23, 2021, without a required license from the Bureau of Industry and Security, located in D.C., a violation that could land him up to 20 years in prison and fines reaching $1 million, his involvement in an illegal gun running operation has now been duly noted and has brought him under the scrutiny of federal law, Eugene had arranged to export vehicles to Haiti using a Florida-based export company signing the company's shipment terms that explicitly forbade the inclusion of firearms or ammunition; Eugene later confessed to law enforcement, in an interview, that he indeed smuggled firearms secreted within these vehicles during 2020 and 2021.
Eugene admitted how he went about concealing the firearms within the shipments, "placing food and other items around the bins holding the firearms so border authorities would not find the weapons," according to the statement obtained by the Department of Justice. Furthermore, Eugene later disclosed to federal agents that nine firearms he purchased were kept at a gas station he owned in Haiti, none remaining on U.S. territory.
Law enforcement's attention on Eugene culminated in his arrest on May 4, 2024, under an active arrest warrant during a traffic stop in Key West; the case is currently being looked into by the FBI's Miami Field Office, with additional support from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Commerce's Office of Export Enforcement, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall and Trial Attorney Beau Barnes of the National Security Division lead the prosecution efforts, the far-reaching implications of Eugene's actions illustrating a clear breach of international arms regulation, presenting issues of national and international security considerable enough to warrant a multi-agency investigation and a severe response under law.
