PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) The arrest of a failed Haitian businessman living in Florida who authorities say was a key player in the killing of Haitis president deepened the mystery Monday into an already convoluted plot surrounding the assassination.

Haitian authorities identified the suspect as Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 62, who once expressed a desire to lead his country in a YouTube video. However, he is unknown in Haitian political circles, and associates suggested he was duped by those really behind the assassination of President Jovenel Mose in an attack last week that critically wounded his wife, Martine, who remains hospitalized in Miami.

A Florida friend of Sanon told The Associated Press that the suspect is an evangelical Christian pastor and a licensed physician in Haiti, but not in the U.S. The associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of safety concerns, said Sanon told him he was approached by people claiming to represent the U.S. State and Justice departments who wanted to install him as president.

He said the plan was for Mose to be arrested, not killed, and Sanon would not have participated if he knew Mose would be assassinated.

I guarantee you that, the associate said. This was supposed to be a mission to save Haiti from hell, with support from the U.S. government.

Echoing those sentiments was the Rev. Larry Caldwell, a Florida pastor, who said he worked with Sanon setting up churches and medical clinics in Haiti from 2000-2010. He doesnt believe Sanon would have been involved in violence.

I know the character of the man, Caldwell said. You take a man like that and youre then going to say he participated in a brutal crime of murder, knowing that being associated with that would send him to the pits of hell? ... If there was one man who would be willing to stand in the breach to help his country, it would be Christian.

Haitis National Police chief, Lon Charles, said Moses killers were protecting Sanon, whom he accused of working with those who plotted the assassination.

Charles said officers found a hat with the logo of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, four license plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and correspondence, among other things, in Sanons house in Haiti.

Twenty-six former Colombian soldiers are suspected in the killing and 23 have been arrested, along with three Haitians. Charles said five suspects are still at large and at least three have been killed.

They are dangerous individuals, Charles said. Im talking commando, specialized commando.