A former U.S. soldier has been extradited from Ukraine on years-old prices that he went on an alleged “worldwide crime spree,” together with the 2018 killings and theft of a pair in Florida to fund journey plans to Venezuela to wage military-style raids in opposition to its authorities, federal prosecutors introduced Monday.
In a U.S. Division of Justice information launch, authorities famous that 34-year-old Craig Austin Lang has confronted federal indictments in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona since 2019. The Federal Bureau of Investigation introduced Lang from Ukraine to the US after the European Court docket of Human Rights rejected his declare difficult extradition, the discharge stated. Lang, a U.S. citizen from Shock, Arizona, pleaded not responsible in Florida on Monday, based on courtroom paperwork.
Lang faces a bevy of prices within the three circumstances. They embrace utilizing a gun throughout a lethal violent crime in Florida, and violating the Neutrality Act and conspiring to kill folks abroad for his plans in Venezuela, which is a rustic with whom the U.S. is at peace, the indictment notes.
A number of months after the alleged Florida killings, in North Carolina, Lang traded a navy smoke grenade, weapons and money to make use of somebody’s id to use for a U.S. passport, one other indictment claims. And in Arizona, he’s charged with displaying a U.S. passport to Mexican authorities in September 2018 to attempt to get a Mexican visa in violation of the passport’s restrictions.
“Lang’s alleged conduct is surprising in its scope and its callous disregard for human life,” stated Principal Deputy Assistant Lawyer Common Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Division’s Legal Division.
The Related Press emailed an legal professional listed for Lang looking for touch upon the costs and extradition.
In the meantime, a number of others have been indicted alongside Lang within the Florida and North Carolina circumstances and have already been convicted or pleaded responsible.
The killings in Florida unfolded in April 2018, the yr after Lang and one other former U.S. Army soldier, Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, had met in Ukraine, the place they claimed to be a part of a volunteer battalion preventing Russian separatists, authorities stated. The 2 have been detained in Kenya whereas making an attempt to enter South Sudan in 2017 and have been finally deported to the U.S., based on an FBI affidavit.
In Florida, a pair of their 50s from Brooksville deliberate to purchase weapons that Lang and Zwiefelhofer had listed on the market on-line, however the two males allegedly killed the couple to steal the $3,000 charged for the weapons, authorities stated.
In Fb Messenger conversations that had begun the month earlier than, Lang and Zwiefelhofer mentioned touring to Florida, shopping for physique armor, committing robberies, stealing boats, escaping to South America or Ukraine, and smuggling weapons and ammunition, the FBI affidavit says.
Federal authorities stated they discovered information of Lang leaving Mexico Metropolis for Bogota, Colombia, in September 2018, then departing Colombia for Madrid, Spain, that November, with no file of Lang reentering the U.S. after leaving Mexico. The FBI agent’s affidavit, filed in August 2019, stated social media posts confirmed Lang was in Ukraine at the moment.
A jury convicted Zwiefelhofer in March on prices within the Florida case, together with the usage of a gun throughout a lethal violent crime and others. He’s awaiting his sentencing.
The AP emailed an legal professional listed for Zwiefelhofer looking for feedback on the developments within the case involving Lang.
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