Haitian police arrested former government official Joseph Félix Badio Thursday (Oct.19) for his alleged role in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, the Miami Herald reports.

Badio, 60, was a fugitive from justice since he fled to the hills of Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital, after a team of Colombian commandos stormed Moïse’s home and gunned down the president.

Police captured Badio in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, while grocery shopping in a popular supermarket. He was among a group of key high-profile suspects on the run.

The New York Times reports that authorities issued an arrest warrant for Badio in Haiti, accusing him of murder, attempted murder and robbery.

Police arrested the gunmen hours after the assassination. They told investigators that Badio was the person who gave them orders in the operation – which initially was to arrest Moïse but then changed to murder days before the killing.

“Badio is so central to the assassination case, not because he is likely to have been the ultimate mastermind, but because he appears to be one of the very few individuals who might actually have known what was really going on and who else was involved,” Jake Johnston, a Haiti expert at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, told The Times.

Johnston added that Badio, who was fired from his anti-corruption post in the Justice Ministry months before the assassination, had a hand in almost all aspects of the plot.

“He could very well be the key link that connects the ongoing U.S. case, which thus far has been narrowly focused on those with ties to Florida, with powerful actors in Haiti that have thus far remained hidden,” Johnston continued.

The U.S. Department of Justice accused several South Florida businessmen of involvement in the assassination. According to prosecutors, they wanted to install a president they could control to obtain lucrative contracts with the Haitian government.

So far, the DOJ has charged 11 people for their involvement in the assassination plot or for supporting the scheme. At least three people have pleaded guilty in a Miami federal court: John Joël Joseph, a former Haitian senator, Rodolphe Jaar, a former Drug Enforcement Administration informant, and German Rivera, a retired Colombian Army captain.

Meanwhile, authorities arrested more than 40 people in Haiti but have not formally charged any of them.