At least one member of an infamous Venezuelan gang was involved in the murder of a retired Venezuelan police officer who lived in Doral, Florida, police said.
José Luis Sánchez Valera, 43, was lured into a Miami hotel room by two women in late November and was later killed after being abducted in the parking lot.
The Miami Herald reported that Yurwin Salazar, 23, was charged with the murder.
Salazar, a Venezuelan immigrant who lives in South Florida, is a member of the notorious Tren de Aragua street gang, according to the news outlet, which cited police reports.
The gang has been terrorizing Venezuelan citizens for more than 10 years and is known for abducting and torturing victims suspected of having secret fortunes.
The abduction, carjacking, home invasion, and murder of Sánchez Valera is the first known case of a crime committed in South Florida by a member of the gang.
"As of last year, we had been hearing reports that members of the gang had left Colombia, moving through the Darien Gap and walking all the way to the United States," Venezuelan security expert Javier Ignacio Mayorca told the Herald. "There wasn't much factual evidence accompanying the claim that they were already inside the United States. This case, unless proven otherwise, would be the first confirmation that this is true."
Sánchez Valera left his home around 10 p.m. on Nov. 27 and went to room 310 of a La Quinta Inn Hotel and Suites near the Miami airport, according to a Miami-Dade Police report.
He left the room four hours later accompanied by two women and took the elevator to ground level, leaving through a side exit to the parking lot while the women continued on to the lobby, Miami-Dade Police Detective Humberto García said in a supporting affidavit for an arrest warrant.
"Upon entering his vehicle, three unknown subjects dressed in dark colored clothing exited a silver sedan, which was parked near the victim's vehicle, and began physically removing the victim from the front seat of his vehicle and forcibly placed him in the back seat," the affidavit said.
Surveillance cameras captured Sánchez Valera's vehicle, a 2018 Toyota 4Runner, leaving the parking lot with three unknown individuals inside and the victim in the back seat. It returned a short time later, and one of the attackers got out of Sánchez Valera's vehicle and into the silver sedan parked nearby.
At about 3:40 a.m. on Nov. 28, police responded to a call of an armed home invasion at a Doral apartment, which was Sánchez Valera's home.
"Two male subjects had entered the victims' apartment, armed with a firearm, and demanded jewelry from the victim's' roommate. ... The subjects successfully obtained a safe from the victim's' bedroom closet and fled the scene in a silver sedan, which matched the physical description of the silver sedan from La Quinta Inn Hotel," a police report said.
According to the affidavit, one of the home invaders bragged to Sánchez Valera's roommate that they were members of Tren de Aragua before leaving.
Hours later, Sánchez Valera's body was found inside his vehicle, his hands and feed bound with tape. The autopsy revealed that the cause of death was mechanical asphyxia and it was deemed a homicide.
The Herald reported that fingerprints found inside the victim's car linked Salazar to Sánchez Valera's abduction, and he was arrested Jan. 16. He is charged with first-degree murder, armed home invasion, carjacking and kidnapping and is being held without bond.
Many of Tren de Aragua's 2,500 members have fled Venezuela amid a huge immigration wave sweeping the country and have established operations in neighboring countries. The gang is reportedly behind a surge in crime in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru.