A federal grand jury has indicted two Texas men in a plot to invade an island off the coast of Haiti, kill all the men, and use the women and children as sex slaves.
Gavin Rivers Weisenberg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, were charged with conspiracy to murder, maim, or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child pornography, the US Department of Justice said.
Prosecutors said in court that Weisenberg and Thomas “conspired to recruit and lead an unlawful expeditionary force to the Island of Gonâve, which is part of the Republic of Haiti, for the purpose of carrying out their rape fantasies.” The duos plans included buying a sailboat, firearms, and ammunition, and recruiting members of the homeless population of the District of Columbia to carry out their plot.
Gonâve, in the Gulf of Gonâve, is the largest of the island’s satellite islands and has a population of around 87,000 people.
The planning took place for nearly a year, between August 2024 and July 2025 and involved the pair “making operational and logistical plans, learning Haitian Creole language, recruiting others to join the invasion plan, and researching and enrolling in schools to acquire skills relevant to the invasion plan.”
Thomas, prosecutors said, went so far as to enlist in the US Air Froce in order to acquire “military skills relevant to the invasion plan.”
The murder conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted. The two face 15 to 30 years in prison on the child pornography charge, provided they aren’t pardoned.
Prosecutors did not indicate how they learned of the plot but said it was investigated by the FBI, the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the Celina Police Department.
According to KDFW, the two took classes in Haitian Creole from July 2024 to May 2025. Weisenberg enrolled in the North Texas Fire Academy to gain skills for the plot in August 2024 but flunked out in February 2025. He then bought tickets to Thailand to enroll in a sailing course, but he did not enroll when he arrived because it was too expensive.
In March, Thomas — who had joined the Air Force in January — changed his assignment in Germany to one in Maryland, where he planned to recruit homeless people from the DC area.
The child pornography charge relates to an allegation that the two forced a minor to engage in sex acts on camera in August 2024.
Weisenberg was arrested in July on his charges, KDFW said. Jail records show Thomas was arrested on Thursday and is being held without bond on a federal hold. It’s not clear where Weisenberg is being held.
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[Featured image: Gavin Weisenberg and Tanner Thomas/Collins County Sheriff’s Office]
