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FBI: Former soldiers set up deadly robbery to fund foreign fighting
Source: Associated Press
FBI: Soldiers set up deadly robbery to fund foreign fighting
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and YURAS KARMANAU
March 26, 2020
The two former U.S. Army soldiers met in Ukraine, where they joined the same far-right paramilitary group. After getting deported, they planned to take a boat from Miami to South America. They wanted to fight the socialist Venezuelan government and kill “communists.”
That’s what Alex Zwiefelhofer told the FBI agent and police detectives who questioned him about the fatal shooting of a Florida couple in April 2018. Federal authorities believe Zwiefelhofer and fellow Army veteran Craig Lang arranged the deadly robbery of Serafin and Deana Lorenzo to finance the Venezuela trip.
Nearly two years after the killings, Zwiefelhofer, 22, is awaiting trial in Fort Myers, Florida, on federal charges punishable by a death sentence, while Lang, 29, faces the same charges as he fights his extradition from Ukraine, where he married a woman last year and is now under house arrest. One of his attorneys has said it could take years for the extradition case to be resolved.
In the U.S., authorities portray Lang and Zwiefelhofer as cold-blooded killers. In Ukraine, a defense lawyer blames the U.S. government for not doing more to help Lang and other veterans adapt to life off the battlefield.
-snip-
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and YURAS KARMANAU
March 26, 2020
The two former U.S. Army soldiers met in Ukraine, where they joined the same far-right paramilitary group. After getting deported, they planned to take a boat from Miami to South America. They wanted to fight the socialist Venezuelan government and kill “communists.”
That’s what Alex Zwiefelhofer told the FBI agent and police detectives who questioned him about the fatal shooting of a Florida couple in April 2018. Federal authorities believe Zwiefelhofer and fellow Army veteran Craig Lang arranged the deadly robbery of Serafin and Deana Lorenzo to finance the Venezuela trip.
Nearly two years after the killings, Zwiefelhofer, 22, is awaiting trial in Fort Myers, Florida, on federal charges punishable by a death sentence, while Lang, 29, faces the same charges as he fights his extradition from Ukraine, where he married a woman last year and is now under house arrest. One of his attorneys has said it could take years for the extradition case to be resolved.
In the U.S., authorities portray Lang and Zwiefelhofer as cold-blooded killers. In Ukraine, a defense lawyer blames the U.S. government for not doing more to help Lang and other veterans adapt to life off the battlefield.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/2e48df3827465cd1e0c789df4a85265d
This undated booking photo from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office shows Alex Zwiefelhofer. Zwiefelhofer is a co-defendant in the April 2018 killings of a Florida couple. Federal authorities believe Zwiefelhofer and fellow Army veteran Craig Lang robbed and gunned down the couple, Serafin and Deana Lorenzo, to finance a Venezuela trip. (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office via AP)