Three days after news broke about two North Texas men’s stranger-than-fiction plot to subjugate a Haitian island, two former federal prosecutors told NPR on Sunday that their clients plan to plead not guilty.
Tanner Thomas, 20, of Argyle and Gavin Weisenburg, 21, of Allen were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country and production of child sexual abuse images.
Both face up to life in prison for the conspiracy charges and 15-30 years in federal prison on the child sexual abuse image charges.
Dallas attorney John Helms, who’s representing Thomas, told the Denton Record-Chronicle that his client made his initial appearance in federal court Monday morning in Sherman and entered a plea of not guilty.
Thomas, who was booked Thursday, was released Monday from the Collin County Jail to U.S. Marshals Service custody, where Helms said he will remain as the case continues.
“At this point, I am looking forward to receiving the information and evidence the Government is required to produce to support these charges, and I will be vigorously defending Tanner against these charges,” Helms wrote in a message to the Record-Chronicle on Monday.
In a Monday email, Dallas attorney David Finn, a former criminal trial judge who is representing Weisenburg, told the Record-Chronicle that he was limited as to what he could say at this stage and doesn’t plan to try Weisenburg’s case in the press.
Weisenburg was booked into the Collin County Jail on June 3 and released on June 8 to another agency.
“If anyone’s initial reaction to the Government’s Press Release was ‘this sounds crazy, wild, impossible or beyond belief,’ I would encourage them to hold that thought and hold their horses,” Finn wrote. “In fact, the Press Release highlights and underscores the sheer lunacy of this alleged pirate fantasy.
“And I do not believe that the two counts of the indictment are at all related.”
Thomas and Weisenburg, however, may not be the only ones who will face arrest for “the alleged pirate fantasy” that the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Texas claims unfolded between August 2024 and July 2025.
In the Nov. 20 indictment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Locker, the deputy criminal chief for National Security and Cybercrime at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, wrote that Weisenburg and Thomas, along with co-conspirators known and unknown to the grand jury, were attempting to use a mercenary force of homeless people to invade one of Haiti’s largest islands with more than 85,000 people, kill all the men and turn women and children into sex slaves.
Locker alleged that they acted in concert to carry out objectives including:
- Conducting a military expedition and enterprise with the intent to overthrow the government of the Republic of Haiti on La Gonâve.
- Planning, scouting targets and identifying methods for subduing and murdering the male population, with purpose and intent to murder, kidnap and rape other persons on the island.
- Recruiting others to join in the military enterprise and armed coup attack and, in some cases, recruiting personnel in exchange for money.
- Planning to acquire and operate means of transporting their homeless force from the U.S. to the island by purchasing a sailboat.
- Planning to acquire firearms, ammunition and explosives for their homeless force to transport by sailboat.
In the indictment, Locker wrote that Weisenburg and Thomas were “communicating over social media platforms and meeting with each other in person to plan the armed coup attack.”
Locker also offered a timeline in the indictment, pointing out that between July 2024 and May 2025, Weisenburg and Thomas were studying Haitian Creole.
In early August 2024, Weisenburg enrolled in the North Texas Fire Academy in Rockwall, which the indictment alleged was “for the purpose of obtaining training in command-and-control protocols that would be useful during their armed coup attack.”
Later that month, Weisenburg and Thomas allegedly coerced a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for a video, according to the indictment. But it’s unclear how this accusation relates to the other allegations.
On Jan. 7, Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, which, the indictment claims, was “for the purpose of obtaining military training that would be useful in carrying out their armed coup attack.”
In early February, Weisenburg failed out of the fire academy.
A couple of weeks later, Weisenburg purchased plane tickets and traveled to Thailand, allegedly “at least in part for the purpose of enrolling in a sailing school,” but he didn’t enroll due to the cost, the indictment states.
On Feb. 28, Thomas allegedly confirmed via a social media message to Weisenburg that “his purpose in enlisting was to further their planned armed coup attack,” according to the indictment.
While in Air Force basic training in March, Thomas changed his initial station assignment from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to Andrews Air Base in Maryland. This, according to the indictment, was for two purposes: to remain in the U.S. to facilitate their armed coup and, since it is near Washington, D.C., “to facilitate the recruitment of members of the area’s homeless population to serve as members of their unlawful expeditionary force.”
In a Nov. 20 news release about the indictment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Texas said the case is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Celina Police Department.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Texas refused to give further comment at this stage of the investigation.
In a Monday evening news release, John Thacker, spokesperson for the Celina police, said an unnamed electronic forensic detective from the department’s Criminal Investigation Division worked in conjunction with the investigating agencies to conduct a forensic analysis of data from an electronic device.
“This technical support contributed to the evidence gathering process and helped deliver justice in this ongoing federal investigation,” Thacker wrote.
Celina police thanked and congratulated both the FBI and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations “on their tireless work that led to the indictment of two individuals in North Texas.”
“Along with the exceptional team we partnered with at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, these combined law enforcement and legal efforts helped protect our communities in North Texas and beyond,” Thacker wrote.
CHRISTIAN McPHATE can be reached at 940-220-4299 and cmcphate@dentonrc.com.
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