2 men accused of posing as rideshare drivers in separate Miami-Dade rape cases were working together, police say - WSVN 7News

MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Two men who were arrested in separate incidents, accused of posing as rideshare drivers to rob and rape young women, were actually working as a team, police said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Alejandro Yadir Gongora and 49-year-old Estalin Maurad-Avecillas face a list of charges including sexual assault and kidnapping in connection to the incidents.

One of the victims, a tourist, testified before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer during Maurad-Avecillas' Feb. 23 court appearance in connection to an incident that, police said, took place on Jan. 12.

"He made me believe that that was my Uber and said, 'Get in the car, get in the car,'" the victim told Glazer.

Instead, the victim said, she blacked out and woke up a victim.

Like several other victims, detectives said, this woman left South Beach, entered what she thought was a rideshare she ordered, and wound up hours later in a strange hotel, raped and alone .

Investigators said both suspects operated across Miami Dade County, including in Miami's Brickell section.

"Robbery and sexual battery incident," said Miami Beach Police Cmdr. Shantell Mitchell.

Police said Gongora picked up two victims in Miami and, before he dropped them off at their Miami Beach hotel, sexually assaulted one of the women, and stole a cellphone and passport.

"So he's pretending to be a rideshare driver, picks up these two women, robs them and assaults them," said Glazer during Gongora's Oct. 5, 2023 court appearance .

City of Miami Police said DNA evidence later linked Gongora to additional sex crimes, including one from August of 2023 where, after being picked up by a rideshare in Brickell following a night out, a victim alleged she was raped by Gongora.

The arrest report states, "There was a second male (described by victim as a white Hispanic with a beard) driving."

Miami Police detectives Maurad-Avecillas was Gongora's accomplice. He was arrested in February

Maurad-Avecillas was seen on surveillance video after he allegedly drove a blacked out woman to a motel and committed rape.

"I don't know what they did to me, but I have bruises," the victim in the January incident told Glazer.

Gongora and Maurad-Avecillas remain in jail with open pending cases.