Investigators are aware that someone mailed a lamp from Puerto Rico to Osceola County with the intention of concealing three kilograms of cocaine. This aided them in the course of their continuing investigation into two Central Florida homicides.
Dennis Lemma, the sheriff for Seminole County, stated that the two killings were connected by a 2002 forest green Acura, which is the only one in Florida, and unusual 10mm ammunition that were fired at both crime scenes.
On April 10, a father named Juan Cintron was assassinated in the Taft region of Orange County. On April 11, Katherine Guerrero was found dead in Osceola County after being abducted in Seminole County.
“There is clearly a connection here,” Lemma stated on Friday.
The mother, who was born in the Dominican Republic, lived far from her deep south Miami-Dade County home and beauty parlors, according to the authorities.
To crack the case, federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security, and U.S. Marshals Service collaborated with Osceola, Orange, and Seminole county deputies.
Juan Luis Cintron Garcia, better known as Cintron, worked as a tow truck driver. He had towed the forest green Acura that Guerrero’s killer would later use. He was 39 when he was towed on March 19 for parking illegally in Orange County.
An armed kidnapper was seen on camera leaping out of the green Acura before robbing Guerrero, whose real name is Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, according to a witness’s footage.
Miguel Aguasvivas, Guerrero’s spouse, aroused the suspicions of the detectives.
Lemma stated at a press conference that “I think he knows a lot more than what he shared” and that Aguasvivas is not a suspect in a homicide.
Deputy Francisco Estrella was taken into custody by authorities in Orange County on April 14. Aguasvivas was purportedly friends with the deputy’s wife as a youngster, and Estrella was charged with abusing his position to provide him with information regarding the investigation.
When Monicsabel Romero-Soto showed up at a property in Osceola County with a baby, federal and local law officers met her and that’s when the cocaine-containing lamp fixture came into play.
Romero-Soto, 27, was detained by US Homeland Security officers on April 17. Romero-Soto and her partner, Giovany Crespo, resided in a house inspected by Seminole deputies, who claimed finding money, fentanyl, and a firearm.
It is believed by investigators that Guerrero spoke with Crespo—also going by the name Giovany Joel Crespo Hernandez—during her visit to Central Florida.
Lemma stated that Guerrero’s husband claimed she traveled to Central Florida to visit relatives, and her brother Luis Guerrero subsequently informed officers that Crespo had informed him she was in the area to provide “money and other stuff for a friend.”
Additionally, investigators linked Jordanish “Jordan” Torres-Garcia to the acquisition of the green Acura, and on April 19, the U.S. Marshals Service detained him. A criminal warrant for his possession of guns was still in effect.
“His phone number is matching the phone number that was given with the person who purchased the green Acura,” Lemma stated.
Investigators believe that Torres-Garcia, 28, was the shooter in the witness’s abduction footage before to Guerrero’s disappearance.
During a press conference on Friday, Lemma stated, “He is wanted for gun charges out of Puerto Rico,” adding that he was suspected of breaking the terms of his probation.
Lemma claimed that Torres-Garcia was wearing the same mask and attire in his Facebook profile photo as the kidnapper had worn prior to the murder.
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Lemma described the footage as “extremely frightening” because to the perpetrator’s audacity in getting out of the automobile, wearing a hood, brandishing a weapon in broad daylight, and entering into the car.
In these situations, prosecutors have not yet brought murder charges.
“The direct connection between ‘Jordan’ and Katherine has not been established,” Lemma stated.
The deputy who was arrested, Estrella, 33, was charged with intercepting wire, oral, or electronic communications; disclosing wire, oral, or electronic communications; using or disclosing confidential criminal justice information; using a two-way communication device unlawfully; and using or exceeding permission to access computers or electronic devices.
Romero-Soto, 27, was charged in Osceola County with trafficking in cocaine. Lemma identified Crespo Hernandez and Torres-Garcia as persons of interest even though they were not charged with the crimes.
Lemma added that even with increased access to data and documents, detectives were still trying to put the “pieces of the puzzle” together.
“We feel incredibly comfortable with the evidence that we will be able to collect,” Lemma stated.
