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

A Cutler Bay man is in federal custody as part of the criminal investigation surrounding Sergio Pino, the Miami developer who fatally shot himself Tuesday morning as FBI agents descended on his Coral Gables home.

Fausto Villar, 42, is listed as an inmate in the federal prison system as of Wednesday. Along with the raid at Pino’s Cocoplum home, FBI agents went to Villar’s house in Cutler Bay on Tuesday morning to make an arrest tied to the case, though the agency did not say at the time who was arrested there.

The address given by the FBI is a home owned by Villar and his wife, and neighbors told the Miami Herald that Villar was the one they saw get arrested. Villar is now listed in the federal database of prison inmates as someone held in downtown Miami’s Federal Detention Center.

FBI agents had descended on Pino’s home Tuesday morning 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.

READ THE DOCUMENTS: FBI affidavits detail alleged threats against developer’s wife

In the murder for hire case, the FBI said agents were dispatched to a second address Tuesday morning, a Cutler Bay home 12 miles south of Pino’s residence. In its news release, the FBI reported that one person had been taken into custody “without incident” at the house on the 9700 block of Bel Aire Drive.

The single-story home identified by the FBI is owned by 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.