Two men colluded to operate a faux rideshare service that they used to kidnap, rape, and rob inebriated women leaving nightclubs in Miami, according to investigators.
The case began with the February arrest of Danny Estalin Maurad-Avecilla, 49, after a California woman vacationing in Florida said that she ordered an Uber to her Airbnb from a nightclub on January 12. Instead of being driven back to the Airbnb, the woman detailed to investigators that she woke up in a motel room in Little Havana covered in bruises, experiencing pelvic pain — and with no recollection on how she got there.
On top of that, she reported fraudulent charges racked up on her credit card and being robbed of $200 in cash, Miami police say. A clerk at the motel told police that Maurad-Avecilla used the woman’s credit card to rent a room for six hours. The clerk also said he saw Maurad-Avecilla take the woman, whom the clerk said appeared to be intoxicated, inside the room.
Since then, several more women have come forward with similar accounts, and police have arrested another man they say was Maurad-Avecilla’s accomplice.
Both Maurad-Avecilla and 39-year-old Yadir Alejandro Gongora are in Miami-Dade County jail, held without bond, on kidnapping and sexual battery charges. Though Maurad-Avecilla has been locked up since February, more charges were added Sunday.
Gongora, who was serving two years probation after pleading guilty to robbery in a similar case in May, was arrested again in August for two separate cases involving allegations of kidnapping and sexual assault — another instance in which he was accused of posing as a rideshare driver.
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Detectives said the two men collaborated in the crimes, with one of them driving and the other sexually assaulting the women.
In each case, women told police they left clubs intoxicated, ended up in a rideshare car, and then were raped.
DNA from rape kits submitted to police connected Gongora to a victims in August who said they were sexually assaulted last year after leaving separate bars and clubs, according to one of his arrest reports.
Since Gongora’s arrest this summer, detectives found several cellphone communications between him and Maurad-Avecilla that go back to 2022, arrest reports state.
Witnesses connected to a suspected sexual assault that happened last August picked Maurad-Avecilla out of a photo lineup and identified him as the man who picked up the victim from the Candela Bar in Brickell, according to his arrest report.
Both Gongora and Maurad-Avecilla told police they work as rideshare drivers but not for an established service like Uber or Lyft. Rather, they either rely on a set of regular customers or they solicit business outside bars and clubs and get paid via cash apps, according to the arrest reports.
The 22-year-old victim told police that she and two coworkers took an Uber to Candela in August 2023.
The victim said that during their time at the bar, her phone battery died and she could not find her friends, according to police. She remembered walking outside the bar and ending up in a car, but could not recall how she got inside the vehicle.
While in the car, a man raped her while another man drove the car. She woke up, still inside the vehicle, almost five hours later, police wrote in their report.
The men later told her to get out of the car while at a Publix parking lot that was located about two minutes away from the bar, police said.
Gongora told police that he did not know the woman, denied having sex with her, and said the DNA match was likely an error, his arrest report states.
Last month, an FBI agent interviewed the victim and she was able to provide information she previously didn’t remember, according to the detectives report issued Sunday. She told the agent that Maurad-Avecilla was the man who put her into the car when she left Candela. Additionally, she said she recalled him looking at her through the rearview mirror as he drove the car and Gongora raped her, the report states.
Since Maurad-Avecilla’s arrest in February, more victims have been coming forward to police.
Also in February, one woman, who was vacationing from Virginia, said she went with friends to the Perro Negro nightclub in Wynwood. Her last memory from her night out was using the restroom at the club, then waking up at Motel 77 with bruises on both inner thighs, according to a police report. Motel 77 is the same Little Havana motel where the victim who was attacked in January said she was taken.
Her cellphone and Apple watch were also missing, police said. The woman told police that she did not order a rideshare that night.
Detectives watched security camera footage from the motel and saw a man fitting Maurad-Avecilla’s description exiting an SUV and dragging the woman out of the car.
He then put her over his shoulder and went inside the motel. The room was paid for with the woman’s credit card, police said, using her Virginia driver’s license as identification to finalize the charge, according to police.
Arizona vacationers have come forward.
Two women on vacation from Arizona also recalled having a similar encounter with Maurad-Avecilla a few days after the aforementioned alleged incident, police say.
The victims told police that on February 21, they ordered an Uber to take them from Club Space in Miami to Rooney Palace in South Beach.
A driver who police identified as Maurad-Avecilla pulled up in a gray SUV. Once the women were inside, one of them recorded what transpired next on her cellphone.
After about five minutes, Maurad-Avecilla told them the Uber had cancelled on the app and they needed to pay him directly. One of the women gave him a bank card, but he said it did not work, according to the police report.
The driver played loud music inside the car and gave the women shots from a margarita mix, as well as a Corona beer, police added. During the ride, which should have taken about five minutes, one of the women told police she drifted in and out of sleep. At one point, she said she woke up to find Maurad-Avecilla standing outside of the car.
She asked him if he would just take them back to their hotel.
When he asked the address, the women could not recall, but told him to take them to 1 Hotel on Miami Beach, because she remembered it was next to their hotel, according to the report.
The woman told police that when Maurad-Avecilla pulled into the hotel driveway, a valet attendant rushed up to the car and helped her inside the building because she had trouble walking, according to the police report.
By the time the women woke up in their room, their cellphones were gone, as were two EpiPens.
The women later noticed unauthorized charges on their credit cards, police added.
Detectives obtained a warrant for Maurad-Avecilla’s cellphone, where they found photos of the women’s credit cards, as well as a picture of one of their driver’s licenses, according to the report.
–David Goodhue, Miami Herald (TNS)
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