Suspected Florida double killer and mercenary an international man of mystery

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Serafin Lorenzo Jr. and Deana K. Lorenzo were looking to buy some guns.

Instead, the Brooksville, Fla., couple would be cut down in a hail of bullets and left to die on the pavement.

The pair had agreed to pay $3,000 to an online gun store called Armslist. But they had been set up for  murder and robbery.

Now, cops say one of the killers is a former U.S. soldier who fought as a mercenary in Ukraine, Venezuela,  Sudan and elsewhere.

Craig Austin Lang, 34, of Arizona was extradited from Ukraine in the wake of what investigators are calling an international crime spree. That rampage allegedly included the Florida double murder, applying for passports using a fake name and going overseas to commit violence, violating the Neutrality Act.

Lang faces charges in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona. He was arraigned on charges in Florida on Monday.

“Lang’s alleged conduct is shocking in its scope and its callous disregard for human life,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, principal deputy assistant attorney general, in a statement.

According to cops, Lang and co-defendant Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, 27, of Bloomer, Wis., met in Ukraine in 2017 where the latter claimed the pair were fighting Russian separatists.

After Ukraine, the duo allegedly travelled to Kenya, where they claimed they were fighting terrorists. They were detained while trying to enter South Sudan and deported, the Department of Justice said.

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Back in the United States, Lang allegedly told Homeland Security that he had been a “soldier and military advisor to the Ukraine Army since 2015.” As for the twosome’s African adventure, Lang said they were headed to South Sudan to “fight along with their military,” according to authorities.

In April 2015, the two men travelled to Florida, where they allegedly set up the ill-fated gun buy with the Lorenzos.

At about 11 p.m. on April 9, 2018, the Lee County Sheriff’s Officers responded to reports of “rapid gunfire” in Estero. Deputies found nothing.

But the next morning, a plaza employee next door saw a dead man laying alongside a pickup truck. A woman was dead inside the cab.

Cops recovered more than 60 shell casings, and an autopsy revealed that the Lorenzos had been hit 18 times.

Eventually, detectives traced text messages from the couple to a number allegedly linked to Zwiefelhofer.

Court documents alleged the two accused killers wanted to rob the Lorenzos so they could travel to Venezuela to fight the regime.

After the murders, Lang travelled to North Carolina, taking evasive action to elude cops and “minimize scrutiny when travelling internationally,” according to authorities.

Prosecutors said Lang reportedly submitted a bogus passport application in the name of a co-conspirator. In exchange, Lang allegedly gave him a suitcase containing several firearms, a military smoke grenade and $1,500 in cash.

Days later, Lang and another man allegedly used bogus passports to fly to Ukraine. He also used a fake passport to try to obtain a Mexican visa while in Arizona, according to the accusations.

In Ukraine, Lang battled extradition, claiming at the European Court of Human Rights that his rights were being violated. His request was torpedoed, and FBI agents escorted Lang from Ukraine back to the U.S.

Lang and Zwiefelhofer are also accused of violating the Neutrality Act, which forbids U.S. citizens to wage war on countries the U.S. is at peace with.

A federal jury convicted Zwiefelhofer of several of the charges Lang now faces.

Zwiefelhofer’s slated to be sentenced on Aug. 6.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun