MIAMI – Miami police arrested a man Friday after they said, in separate incidents, he picked up two young women from a Brickell bar pretending to be a rideshare driver and raped them. It’s not his first time being accused of the exact same crime.
Yadir Alejandro Gongora, 40, of Hialeah, was previously arrested last October after police said he posed as an Uber driver, picked up two women from a Wynwood nightclub and sexually battered one of them on South Beach.
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In that case, Miami-Dade court records show that Gongora pleaded guilty to robbery by sudden snatching in the case and received two years probation and withheld adjudication in April; prosecutors took no action on charges of sexual battery and strong-armed robbery. The court found that he “was not likely to engage in a criminal course of conduct,” a sentencing memo states.
Police said Gongora’s latest arrest stems from two incidents that took place before that initial October arrest. He’s now facing two counts each of sexual battery and kidnapping.
Both women in the latest cases, police said, had left the Candela bar, located at 900 S. Miami Ave. within the Mary Brickell Village shopping complex, and both said they had no recollection of ever ordering a rideshare.
In the first incident, police said a 22-year-old woman who left the bar at around 2 a.m. on Aug. 20, 2023 woke up to find herself being raped by Gongora in the back of a vehicle driven by another man.
She later woke up again in the vehicle with Gongora next to her in the parking lot of the Publix at 134 SW 13th St., which was not her intended destination, an arrest report states.
It states she would later report what happened to police and undergo a rape examination.
The second rape happened on Sept. 29, 2023, police said.
A 21-year-old woman, again leaving the bar at around 2 a.m., told police she had no recollection of what happened until waking up at 7 a.m. outside the Navarro Discount Pharmacy at 18601 NW 67th Ave., near her home, police said.
“The victim noticed she had her underwear in her purse and her phone, wallet and camera were missing,” an arrest report states.
That led her to report the incident to police and undergo a rape examination.
The arrest reports said the results matched Gongora’s DNA in a Florida Department of Law Enforcement database.
Police said they showed both women Gongora’s photo on Thursday and they identified him as the suspect.
Police took him into custody the next day at his Hialeah efficiency on East Fourth Avenue.
In an interview with detectives, Gongora claimed that “he would offer people rides” as they left clubs in the Wynwood and downtown Miami areas, name-dropping popular venues E11EVEN and Club Space, but worked on his own and not for a rideshare company, saying riders would pay him in cash or through apps.
Police said Gongora claimed he “had regular recurring customers that would contact him directly” and “admitted to sometimes picking up intoxicated patrons leaving the clubs.”
He told detectives “he preferred men because the women did not have money to pay for the rides,” the arrest reports state.
What Gongora told police next was redacted from the arrest reports.
Following his arrest, the Cuban national was being held without bond Monday at the Metrowest Detention Center, online records show.
Local 10 News has contacted the Miami Police Department to inquire whether detectives suspect Gongora may have victimized more women.