A man and a woman who are members of the Sinaloa cartel were accused of the execution-style murder of 46-year-old Cuban Julio Gonzalez at a hotel in Miami in November 2022, and could face life imprisonment if found guilty.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office of the Southern District of Florida reported in a statement that on June 20, Jimmy Sánchez from San Diego, California, and Tsvia Kol from Miami, both 36 years old, were formally charged with "conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with the intent to distribute it, discharge a firearm to promote a drug trafficking crime, and cause a death in the course of the drug trafficking conspiracy."
On November 29, 2022, Kol lured González to the Aladdin Hotel in Miami Springs, where he demanded that she reveal the whereabouts of a lost package of methamphetamines, which she suspected he had stolen.
Previously, the woman had made arrangements for Sánchez to fly to Miami from San Diego and help her locate the package and carry out the victim's murder, the Prosecutor's Office indicated.
On November 30, authorities found Gonzalez with two gunshot wounds, to the face and head, lying in room 304 of the Aladdin Hotel, at 901 S. Royal Poinciana Blvd., near Miami International Airport.
If declared guilty in the trial, Sánchez and Kol face a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, up to life imprisonment with supervised release, and fines of up to $10,000,000.
On April 11, Sánchez was arrested and taken to prison for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, but he pleaded not guilty to the charges in a state court.
Kol was arrested the morning after the crime, but only on federal drug trafficking charges. In the arrest warrant, she was described as "a known high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel".
In May, she was sentenced to nine years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute almost two kilos of methamphetamines that were seized from her in 2020. However, she was not charged with González's murder until last Thursday.
González worked as a valet parking attendant at a casino and lived in Hialeah Gardens. According to his neighbors, he often offered to protect packages to prevent them from being stolen. But no one knew he was helping the Sinaloa cartel send methamphetamine to Miami, and that was the reason for his murder.
The Cuban was expecting a shipment on November 16, 2022, of 11 pounds of methamphetamines, which were to be delivered to a neighboring apartment, where he would go to pick them up. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intercepted the package, preventing the drug from reaching its destination.
During a surveillance operation, the detectives saw Gonzalez looking for the package.
Less than two weeks after that failed delivery, the Cuban man was murdered.
THE MURDER
Kol and Sánchez began communicating three days before the crime, and the woman coordinated the hitman's trip from San Diego, according to the message record obtained by the police from her cell phone.
Sánchez flew to Miami International Airport, rented a car, and drove to Hallandale Beach, where he met with Kol. Later, he followed her from southern Broward to the Aladdin hotel to meet González in room 304.
Kol and González exchanged several Instagram messages on the night of the murder, according to the court order.
Surveillance cameras recorded the woman taking Gonzalez to the hotel in a Kia sedan; both entered the lobby through the back door around 10:45 p.m. Meanwhile, Sanchez was captured entering the place and heading to the room at 11:20 p.m.
Around 11:23 p.m., the police received a call from González to 911 in which he was heard saying: "Hotel Aladdin". When the operator asked if he needed help, he simply replied "yes, urgently", before the communication was cut off.
The dispatchers returned the call and heard a scuffle followed by the words "No, no, no" and the sound of a gunshot.
According to the arrest warrant, Miami Springs police arrived at the hotel at 11:36 p.m., but they couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.
The next day, around 9 a.m., the hotel manager went to room 304 and found González in the middle of a puddle of blood. He was declared dead on the spot.
Interrogated by the police, Gonzalez's former partner revealed that, five days before being murdered, the Cuban had posted a photo of a woman named "Sapir Kol" - later identified as Tsvia Kol - with the caption: "If something happens to me, it's her." The ex-girlfriend also informed the officers that Gonzalez had told her that Kol was threatening to kill him.
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