South Florida man pleads guilty to smuggling guns into Haiti from Miami area for years, DOJ says

A South Florida man pleaded guilty in federal court to smuggling at least 140 firearms to Haiti over roughly four years, using hollowed-out industrial air compressors to hide the weapons before shipping them out of the Miami area, according to federal officials.

Jean Robert Casimir, 53, a naturalized U.S. citizen and former Haitian National Police officer, admitted to conspiracy, smuggling and violations of U.S. export control law, according to the United States Department of Justice.

Prosecutors say he ran the operation from at least August 2020 through December 2024.

According to court documents, Casimir, of Lauderhill, bought at least 108 firearms from licensed dealers and another 30 to 35 from a person in Florida.

The weapons included rifles, pistols and shotguns of various makes and models, none of which he had a license to export, the DOJ said.

To get the guns out of the country, the DOJ said Casimir and his co-conspirators cut open industrial air compressors, packed disassembled firearms inside with foam insulation, then welded the compressors back together. 

Those packages, along with others, were shipped to Haiti on boats leaving from the Miami area, court documents say.

Casimir was arrested in Lauderhill on Dec. 16, 2024, and indicted on Jan. 23, 2025.

The case was investigated by the FBI Miami Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations offices in Washington, D.C. and Miami, with help from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's National Security Division, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.

A sentencing date has not been announced.