Trinidad man charged in US with arranging `hit’

Ryan Hadeed
Ryan Hadeed

(Trinidad Guardian) Ryan Hadeed has been charged in the United States for allegedly attempting to arrange the contract killing of his ex-girlfriend’s fiancee.

He will be arraigned on January 7 and has been charged with using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder for hire.

A release from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, stated that Hadeed first made contact with the owner of a gun store at Coral Springs on September 29.

He allegedly wrote a letter and posted it using the US Postal Service.

It read, “I need someone eliminated. I’ve been told you can arrange that. $10,000. All in cash and up front. Person located in Tampa. You can be there and back in a day. You get their photo, first name, work address and home address.”

The criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors reveals four letters were written and posted between September and November. The letters carried a return address in Hialeah with the name “Alan Smithee,” a common pseudonym used by writers and Hollywood directors when they don’t want their name on a project, the Miami Herald reported.

In his letter, Hadeed allegedly asked the gun store owner to signal his acceptance of the contract hit by buying a cup of coffee at a Coral Springs coffee shop, then putting a blank piece of white paper in the window of his gun store, the complaint said.

The last letter dated November 8 read, “Will know when the subject is taken out. Need to be done before the end of 2021.”

The gun store owner, who lives in Coral Springs, has no criminal record, according to an article in the Miami Herald. However, he had been helping out the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The man whom Hadeed allegedly wanted dead lived in Tampa and is the fiancee of Ryan Hadeed’s ex-girlfriend, the complaint says. The Herald reported that even though Hadeed lived in Pembroke Pines and the gun store owner lived in Coral Springs, Hadeed has been charged in Fort Lauderdale federal court because he allegedly used the US Postal Service to arrange the hit.

The complaint also said Hadeed had bought a firearm in 2018 from the gun owner’s store.

The statement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida said, “It is alleged that Hadeed left the country on a one-way ticket the same day the hitman received the cash and pictures of the intended victim. Law enforcement officers learned of the plan. During a secondary customs inspection of Hadeed when he returned from his international trip, additional evidence of the crime was uncovered, according to the affidavit. Pursuant to a court-issued warrant, law enforcement officers arrested Hadeed on December 22.”

If convicted, Hadeed faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

A pretrial detention hearing for Hadeed is scheduled for December 29, at 11 am in federal magistrate court in Fort Lauderdale.

The Herald reported that when law enforcement informed Hadeed’s ex-girlfriend and her fiancee about the plot, the fiancee said it reminded him of an unsigned letter he had received in 2020, assailing the fidelity and character of Hadeed’s ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend told investigators “Hadeed was infatuated with her to an unhealthy degree” and had threatened violence when they were dating, the Herald reported.