Juan Rangel-Rubio, Murder for Hire, Georgia 2024
Guilty Verdict in Whistleblower Murder
A U.S. District Court jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty to all charges lodged against Juan Rangel-Rubio, a 45-year-old illegal alien, for his role in conspiring to kill a whistleblower who exposed a multi-million-dollar scheme to fraudulently employ undocumented workers.
The charges against Rangel-Rubio include Conspiracy to Retaliate Against a Witness, Conspiracy to Kill a Witness, Conspiracy to Conceal, Harbor and Shield Illegal Aliens, and Money Laundering Conspiracy. The sentence carries a statutory minimum of life in prison, with no parole in the federal system.
The victim, Eliud Montoya, a United States citizen, was murdered on August 19, 2017, near his home in Garden City, Georgia. Montoya had blown the whistle on a labor trafficking scheme involving the hiring and mistreatment of undocumented workers.
Rangel-Rubio and his co-conspirators, Higinio Perez-Bravo and Pablo Rangel-Rubio, await sentencing after pleading guilty in the conspiracy to kill Eliud Montoya. The scheme, which was uncovered by law enforcement, involved the hiring of illegal aliens to work for Wolf Tree, a contract company that performed tree-cutting services on utility rights-of-way.
The investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), the Garden City Police Department, the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office, and the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.
The guilty verdict brings resolution to the horrific conspiracy to kill a man who threatened their illegal and lucrative labor-trafficking scheme. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia commended the law enforcement partners who solved this brutal murder and paved the way to holding these criminals accountable.
The scheme, which involved the routing of illegal aliens’ paychecks to the conspirators’ own bank accounts, netted more than $3.5 million. Sentencings for all three defendants will begin in November in U.S. District Court.
Key Facts
- State: Georgia
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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