An indictment filed in a Texas federal court accuses Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, of planning to recruit an army of homeless people, buy a sailboat and seize power on Gonave Island, an island off the coast of Haiti with a population of about 87,000 residents. The two young men allegedly planned to recruit homeless people from Washington, D.C. to serve as their “mercenary force” during their grand coup d’etat.

According to court files, Weisenburg and Thomas had researched Gonave Island and concluded that it had a very weak government, almost no infrastructure, and had been crippled by poverty. They concluded that it could be taken over through a brutal invasion that would eliminate the local men and turn the women and children into slaves.

Prosecutors claim that the two men had been working on the invasion since August 24, working tirelessly to further their ambitious plan. Weisenburg allegedly enrolled in a fire academy around Dallas to receive training that would be useful during the takeover of Gonave, while Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in January. The latter changed his assignment to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to help in the recruiting of homeless people in Washington, D.C.

Both Texas men tried to learn the Haitian Creole language, planned to buy military-type rifles, and made operational and logistical plans.

It’s unclear how the FBI discovered Weiseplannburg and Thomas’ plan, but if convicted of the federal conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, they risk spending the rest of their lives behind bars.

“They never tried to do any of this,” said John Helms, Tanner Christopher Thomas’ lawyer said, adding that prosecutors “are going to have a real hard time” trying to prove that Weisenburg and Thomas actually intended to carry out such a crazy plot. No comment yet from the island of Gonave, whose government appears to have dodged quite the bullet.