NC man, former US soldier extradited from Ukraine for multiple crimes, including double murder of Florida couple
A U.S. soldier turned foreign fighter appeared in court on Monday after he was arrested and charged with a double murder in 2018 and violating the Neutrality Act.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 34-year-old Craig Austin Lang faces several charges in North Carolina, Arizona and Florida stemming from a double murder, multiple violent acts overseas and evading law enforcement.
“Lang went on an international crime spree that concluded in a double murder in Florida, attempts to travel internationally to engage in other acts of violence outside the United States and a plot to evade law enforcement detection by trading guns, a grenade and cash to use another person’s identifying information to apply for a passport under an assumed name,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said.
Jarrett William Smith, a former Army soldier who federal authorities accused of discussing with an FBI informant a possible bomb attack within the United States as well as the targeting of left-leaning activists and a media organization, said Lang was his mentor.
Lang and 27-year-old Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, both former Army soldiers, met in Ukraine, where Zwiefelhofer claimed they were both members of a volunteer battalion fighting Russian separatists.
According to the Justice Department, the two men traveled to Kenya, where Zwiefelhofer claimed they intended to fight against terrorists before attempting to enter South Sudan.
The Justice Department said both men were apprehended in South Sudan and deported to the United States, where they met up in Florida in April 2018.
According to the indictment, a couple from Brooksville, Florida, planned to purchase guns that Lang and Zwiefelhofer listed for sale online at a website called “ARMSLIST.” Lang and Zwiefelhofer allegedly killed the couple during an armed robbery to steal the $3,000 the couple planned to use to buy the weapons.
The two men then used the money to pay for travel to Venezuela, where the men planned to fight the country’s regime.
Lang and Zwiefelhofer are charged with violating the Neutrality Act, conspiracy to kill, kidnap, or maim persons in a foreign country, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, and conspiracy to discharge a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, as well as interference with commerce by robbery and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence causing death. If convicted on all counts, Lang and Zwiefelhofer face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
A federal jury convicted Zwiefelhofer of all the above charges on March 8. His sentencing is scheduled for August 6.
How Lang evaded authorities in North Carolina
According to an indictment from the Eastern District of North Carolina in August 2019, Lang and his co-conspirators took various actions in September 2018 to evade law enforcement when traveling internationally.
They allegedly devised a plan to provide two co-conspirators’ identity documents to Lang and a fourth co-conspirator, Matthew Scott McCloud, to apply for U.S. passports under assumed names.
The indictment alleges that while in North Carolina, Lang submitted a U.S. passport application in the assumed name of one of his co-conspirators, Dameon Shae Adcock. Approximately two days later, Lang allegedly gave Adcock a suitcase containing multiple firearms, a military smoke grenade, and approximately $1,500 in cash as payment for the use of Adcock’s personal information.
Several days later, Lang and McCloud, who had applied for a U.S. passport using the identity of co-conspirator Jordan Dean Miller, allegedly acquired airline tickets to travel from Georgia to New York and then on to Ukraine.
Authorities charged Lang with conspiracy to commit passport fraud and aggravated identify theft, passport fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraud, and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents, and aiding and abetting these offenses, as well as false representation of a social security account number.
Adcock, Miller, and McCloud were also charged in connection with the criminal scheme. If convicted, Lang faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for the fraud charges.
Adcock pleaded guilty in November 2019 and was sentenced in September 2020 to two years and eight months in prison. McCloud pleaded guilty in April 2020 and was sentenced in July 2020 to time served. Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May 2020 to one year of probation.
“The alleged conduct of Craig Austin Lang, which includes homicide and armed robbery, will not be tolerated by the FBI,” Executive Assistant Director Timothy Langan of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch said. “Individuals that engage in such activity must face the consequences of their actions. We would like to thank our partner law enforcement agencies for their efforts in ensuring that criminals face justice. If you cause harm to the American public, we will relentlessly pursue you even if you are located beyond our borders."
