Three people on Tuesday pled guilty in federal court to offenses related to a conspiracy to kidnap and kill a buisness associate over a dispute involving real estate properties, most of which were leased to marijuana dispensaries.
Salam Razuki, Sylvia Gonzales, and Elizabeth Juarez were arrested in early November 2018 for meeting with a confidential human source for the FBI disguised as a hitman to arrange the murder of their buisness associate Ninus Malan in Mexico.
According to a lawsuit filed later by the victim, he and Razuki had a business relationship that fell apart, leading to a civil dispute involving more than $40 million in business assets. Federal Prosecutors said Razuki and Gonzales “wanted the source to ‘shoot him in the face,’ ‘to take him to Mexico and have him whacked,’ or kill him in some other way.
Razuki and Gonzales, eventually joined by Juarez, reiterated their desire to have Malan taken to Mexico and killed, with Gonzales and Juarez stating they wanted to “put the turkey up to roast before Thanksgiving” according to federal prosecutors.
The trio admitted to paying the confidential human source $1,000 upfront as a partial payment during Tuesday's plea hearing, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Federal Prosecutors said the job was priced at $2,000 in total.
Prosecutors wrote that during a meeting with two of the defendants, “Gonzales said she wanted to watch and wanted the victim to know that it had come from them, but Juarez cautioned Gonzales should not watch because it would be gruesome and haunt her.''
The women also said “a lot of people have it out for the victim so nothing would come back on Razuki,'' according to the brief.
On Nov 15, 2018, the source met with Razuki and told him “the victim had been taken care of and offered to show a picture of the victim.' According to prosecutors, Razuki declined to see the picture but directed the source to meet with Gonzales for payment.
The trio will be sentenced in February.
