News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Thurs. Mar. 4, 2021: A Caribbean national has gone from wanting to be president of his homeland to a US jail.
Jacques Duroseau, a former Camp Lejeune Marine who wanted to be the president of Haiti, will now spend the next five years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge James Dever III sentenced Duroseau to a five-year three-month sentence on Tuesday.
Duroseau was convicted last December of conspiracy to illegally exporting and smuggling firearms and controlled equipment from the US to Haiti, as well as transporting firearms without a license to the Haitian Army.
Federal prosecutors said the former Marine sergeant brought eight guns, some of which were purchased in Jacksonville on an American Airlines flight that left New Bern in 2019.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the firearms included a Ruger model Precision Rifle 300WIN MAG and a Spike’s Tactical model ST15, as well as a large amount of ammunition, riflescopes, and body armor.
Reports say that he told investigators he was planning to help the Haitian Army “defeat the thugs that have been creating’’ instability in the country.
A federal complaint also says the person traveling with Duroseau told investigators that Duroseau wanted to move to Haiti when he got out of the Marine Corps and become president there. Duroseau also impersonated a high-ranking military officer and pretended to be on military business, according to the feds.
Duroseau had moved to the US at a young age and finished high school in Brooklyn, New York in 2006. He returned home to Haiti to go to college, but tragedy would drastically alter the course of his future. On January 12, 2010, Haiti experienced a severe earthquake, causing thousands of people to lose their homes and thousands more lost their lives. Duroseau was stuck inside of his own house for four days, pinned between two wall according to marines.mil. After being rescued, he moved back to the US three months later.
He then joined the marines and moved up the ranks. He was stationed at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, where he serves as a marksmanship instructor on the firing ranges there.
