What to Know
- Two men will spend the rest of their lives behind bars for their roles in a murder-for-hire plot more than two decades ago
- Robert Acosta and Jose Diaz were sentenced in Manhattan federal court Friday after a three week trial
- Acosta led a large-scale drug trafficking ring in the 1990s, and paid Diaz about $12,000 to kill two men who stole drug money from him
Two men will spend the rest of their lives behind bars for their roles in a murder-for-hire plot more than two decades ago.
Robert Acosta and Jose Diaz were sentenced in Manhattan federal court Friday after a three week trial.
Prosecutors said Acosta led a large-scale drug trafficking ring in the 1990s, distributing hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from a handful of buildings in Upper Manhattan.
During the summer of 1997, 25-year-old Alex Ventura and 20-year-old Aneudis Almonte allegedly stole drug money from Acosta, so the drug kingpin hired Diaz to kill both men for approximately $12,000, prosecutors claimed.
On December 22 of the same year, Diaz lured Ventura and Almonte to a Bronx apartment building, according to the investigation. The two were ambushed by Diaz and a another assailant, who stabbed Almonte six times, including once in the chest. Prosecutors said Diaz shot Ventura in the head at point blank range.
