Ex-US soldier gets consecutive life sentences for killing couple to fund Venezuela mercenary fighting plans
Former US soldier who fought in Ukraine sentenced to two life sentences Killing a Florida couple during a robbery aimed at financing his trip to Venezuela to fight the government of Nicolás Maduro, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Craig Austin Lang, 35, was convicted in September on federal charges including robbery and conspiracy to murder people in a foreign country. He had previously been extradited from Ukraine, where he had volunteered to fight against Russian separatists.
“Lang’s alleged conduct is shocking in its scope and callous disregard for human life,” Nicole Argentieri, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in an earlier statement.
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Craig Austin Lang, a former U.S. soldier, was extradited from Ukraine to the United States to face multiple federal indictments dating back to 2019, including murder.
Lang and another veteran, Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, met Serafin “Danny” Lorenzo Jr., who was traveling from Brooksville to Estero in April 2018. and killed Deana Lorenzo during what the couple believed was a meeting to purchase guns advertised on “Armslist,” an online marketplace. federal prosecutors in question.
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Craig Austin Lang (left), a former US soldier, is accused of the 2019 double murder of Deana Lorenzo (right) and her husband, who allegedly fled the country to fight as a mercenary in foreign countries.
The couple brought $3,000 and were ambushed in the parking lot and shot multiple times, authorities said. The robbery was intended to finance Lang and Zwiefelhofer’s plans to travel to Venezuela, where they hoped to join a paramilitary group.
Lang was dishonorably discharged US Army in 2014, before joining the far-right Ukrainian nationalist military group known as Right Sector two years later, according to The Washington Post.
Craig Austin Lang, a former U.S. soldier, faces three federal indictments in three states dating back to 2019 after fighting extradition from Ukraine for years, the Justice Department said.
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Lang and Zwiefelhofer had previously fought in Ukraine and had planned to travel to fight in other conflicts.
Zwiefelhofer was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Original article source: Former US soldier sentenced to consecutive life sentences for killing couple to fund Venezuelan mercenaries’ war plans
