FBI makes new arrest in ‘murder for hire’ case related to developer Sergio Pino

On Tuesday morning, FBI agents descended on the Coral Gables home of prominent Miami-Dade home builder Sergio Pino for a “search and arrest” operation related to a murder for hire investigation.

The agency — which had been investigating threats against Pino’s estranged wife, Tatiana Pino — later announced in a news release that Pino had been found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound when agents entered the home.

The news release Tuesday afternoon was the federal agency’s first public acknowledgment that its ongoing investigation, which began in the fall, was being looked at as a murder for hire case. Four men were arrested earlier this year in connection with threats against Tatiana Pino.

On Tuesday morning, as FBI agents entered Sergio Pino’s home, a different group of FBI agents made another arrest at a Cutler Bay house 12 miles south of Pino’s residence.

In its news release, the FBI reported that the person had been taken into custody “without incident” at an address on the 9700 block of Bel Aire Drive.

The single-story home identified by the FBI is owned by Fausto R. Villar and Natalia Barrientos, according to Miami-Dade property records. No one answered the door at the house on Tuesday afternoon.

A neighbor provided the Miami Herald with video footage from earlier that morning showing agents with a man in handcuffs at that address, seemingly talking to his family before being led away. She identified the man as Fausto Villar.

“This all started at 6:20 a.m.,” said the neighbor, Nicole, who declined to give her last name. “At 11 is when they all cleared out.”

A second neighbor confirmed that she knew the man who was arrested as Fausto Villar.

Attempts to reach Villar for comment Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful.