Two Texas Extremists Accused of Plotting Mass Murder and Sexual Enslavement on Haitian Island
Federal prosecutors in Texas have unsealed one of the most disturbing foreign-violence conspiracies in recent memory, a year-long plan by two young North Texas men to invade a Haitian island, kill every man, and enslave the women and children. The plot reads like a fusion of colonial horror, violent misogyny, and pure delusion, but the Justice Department says these weren’t just fantasies. They were operational steps toward a massacre.
“Weisenburg and Thomas intended to murder all of the men on the island so that they could then turn all of the women and children into their sex slaves,” federal prosecutors said.
The Alleged Plot: A Coup Fueled by Rape Fantasies
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas indicted Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, on charges of conspiracy to murder, maim, or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography. Each man faces up to life in prison.
According to prosecutors, the pair spent a full year mapping out an “expeditionary force” to seize Gonave Island, a Haitian island of roughly 87,000 residents located 50 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The plan, investigators say, was explicitly genocidal: kill every man on the island, overthrow local governance, and turn surviving women and children into sexual property.
The indictment states the two men plotted to buy a sailboat, weapons, and ammunition before sailing to Haiti. But their most bizarre step was their recruitment strategy: enlisting members of Washington, D.C.’s homeless population as their “mercenary army.”
Tactical Preparation: Creole Lessons, Military Enrollment, and Fire School
Prosecutors argue the two weren’t merely fantasizing, they were preparing. Thomas, investigators say, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 2025 and allegedly manipulated his base assignment to land at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., specifically to recruit local homeless individuals for the coup and remain in the U.S. to coordinate the attack. Weisenburg reportedly pursued his own paramilitary path, enrolling at the North Texas Fire Academy to study command-and-control systems. After his dismissal in February, prosecutors allege he bought tickets to Thailand to attend a sailing school that would train him to operate the invasion boat. He ultimately abandoned the program due to cost but returned to continue plotting with Thomas.
The indictment says both men studied Haitian Creole as part of their preparation.
Child Exploitation Charges Add to the Horror
Beyond the coup plot, prosecutors accuse both men of coercing a minor into sending a sexually explicit video in August 2024, a separate federal felony carrying a maximum five-year sentence. Thomas was taken into custody Thursday and is now jailed in Collin County. Weisenburg is not currently listed as an inmate.
A Delusional Terror Plan That Still Carried Real Risk
Even as the alleged scheme veered into the fantastical, a two-man militia using homeless Americans to wage a colonial-era sex-slavery coup, the Justice Department is treating it as a genuine threat. Both men took concrete steps: enrolling in military and tactical programs, arranging international travel, and coordinating logistics for weapons, boat travel, and combat operations.
Gonave Island’s population, geography, and limited infrastructure would have made the men’s plan catastrophic if any part had succeeded. Haiti remains in political crisis, stretched thin by gang violence, hunger, and a weakened government, a vulnerability federal officials believe the men sought to exploit. The case now sits in federal court in Plano, Texas, with both suspects facing the possibility of life behind bars.
Sources
- “U.S. men indicted for alleged coup plot to kill and rape people on Haitian island” — The Guardian (Nov. 21 2025) ↗ Link (The Guardian)
- “Federal prosecutors say 2 Texas men made plans to take over a Haitian island” — Associated Press (Nov. 21 2025) ↗ Link (AP News)
- “FBI: North Texas men planned island takeover, mass murder and sex-slave ring” — Houston Chronicle (Nov. 21 2025) ↗ Link (Chron)
- “Two Texas men indicted in plot to kill men, enslave women and children on Haitian island” — Courthouse News Service (Nov. 21 2025) ↗ Link (Courthouse News)
- “Texas men indicted for plot to murder men on island near Haiti, use women & children as sex-slaves” — KSLA 12 News (Nov. 21 2025) ↗ Link (https://www.ksla.com)
