DORAL, Fla. – FBI agents raided a Doral auto shop in connection with a 2019 attempted murder-for-hire investigation targeting a plot to kill a well-known car designer, sources tell Local 10 News.
Agents, joined by Doral police officers, were seen at Doral Collision Center, located at 2091 NW 97th Ave., Friday morning. They remained there into the noon hour. Its owner is now facing seven federal charges.
Sources told Local 10 News that the raid, and another FBI search at a home in Pinecrest on Friday, stem from a murder-for-hire investigation connected to the Aug. 27, 2019, attempted killing of Alex Vega, owner of Avorza Vodka and The Auto Firm, in southwest Miami-Dade.
Vega is known nationally as the auto designer for A-list celebrities and sports athletes.
Vega survived the shooting. In the five years since, two others were arrested, convicted, and sentenced: the shooter and the getaway driver.
According to a 2022 criminal complaint, James Serrano, the alleged getaway driver and Julian Jimenez, accused of shooting Vega, were charged with “stalking, discharging a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime, and conspiracy to use or carry a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.”
They were both sentenced to long prison terms.
Sources tell Local 10 News that Friday morning’s law enforcement activity pertains to the individual federal investigators have identified as the man who put out the hit — an industry competitor.
That individual is one of three suspects identified in an indictment issued Aug. 7 and made public Friday evening: Doral Collison Center owner Rolando Ramirez.
He, along with a man named Rasheed Ali, also known as “Fresh,” are facing charges of solicitation to commit a crime of violence, interstate stalking, conspiracy to use and carry a firearm, discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, murder-for-hire conspiracy and murder-for-hire.
They, along with a man named Tamrat Mason, also known as “Shifta,” are also each facing a charge of obstruction of justice.
The indictment doesn’t contain details about the men’s alleged roles in the attempt on Vega’s life.
It states that Ramirez and Ali “induced and procured Jaime Serrano and Julian Jimenez to travel from New York to Florida with the intent to kill, injure, harass, and intimidate” Vega, and that all three men “knowingly hindered the communication of information to a law enforcement officer.”
Vega’s brother is also well known to South Florida news viewers: Miami Police Department Officer Mike Vega has spent a number of years as an agency spokesperson.
In a statement, a lawyer representing the Vega family said “we are extremely grateful to the FBI and the United States Attorney(’)s office in the Southern District of Florida for their dedication and hard work on this case.”
“At this time we ask for everyone to respect that this is an ongoing case, and there will be no comments or statements from the Vega family or this office,” attorney Hoss Hernandez said in the statement.