Six men face federal charges for their alleged role in a kidnapping at the Margaritaville resort in Hollywood last month, where two victims were taken at gunpoint, driven across Broward and held against their will off U.S. 27, federal court records say.<\/p>\n
The six men accused in the kidnapping are: Saul Alfonso Fajardo, 19; Justin Phihoang Le, 20; Amari Tamire Hill, 21; Anthony Teruel Hernandez, 18; Marikevies McNichols Jr., 19; and Weilen Hernandez, 20.<\/p>\n
About 11 p.m. May 26, a group of three friends were walking along the Hollywood Broadwalk toward Margaritaville when they were approached by Fajardo and a 17-year-old girl, the complaint said. The group of three people who were approached by Fajardo are referred to throughout the court document only as a witness and as \u201cVictim 1\u201d and \u201cVictim 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two victims knew at least several of the suspects socially, including Fajardo, according to a criminal complaint unsealed this week.<\/p>\n
![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/armed-kidnapping-suspects.jpg\")
Six men are facing federal charges after an armed kidnapping on May 26, 2026, at the Margaritaville resort in Hollywood. From left to right on the top row shown are: Justin Le Phihoang, Amari Hill and Marikevies McNichols. From left to right on the bottom row shown are: Anthony Hernandez, Saul Fajardo and Weilen Hernandez. (Broward Sheriff’s Office\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Fajardo invited the two victims and the witness to his car to smoke weed, and they all walked to his red Hyuandai Elantra parked on the fourth floor of the Margaritaville parking garage, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
While all were inside the parking garage, a blue Cadillac pulled behind Fajardo\u2019s car, blocking it into the parking spot, the complaint said.\u00a0Four men jumped out of the Cadillac, all armed with semi-automatic guns and wearing balaclavas, though victim 1 told the FBI recognized Phihoang and at least two other men, the complaint said.<\/p>\n
Victim 1 told the FBI that after he was physically attacked by Hill and Phihoang, who both had guns, Fajardo drove out of the garage with him, Hill and Phihoang as passengers, according to the complaint. The second victim was forced into Anthony Hernandez\u2019s Honda Civic by McNichols and was driven away from the scene at gunpoint in that car, the complaint said.<\/p>\n
Fajardo drove for 30 minutes to an area of U.S. 27 the suspects referred to as \u201cthe spot.\u201d During the drive, Phihoang demanded victim 1 to give him money and ordered him to call people on his cellphone in order to get more, the complaint said.<\/p>\n
Phihoang told him, \u201cIf I don\u2019t get my money, every 10 minutes I\u2019m going to take one of your fingernails,\u201d the complaint said. Victim 1 told the FBI he saw pliers in the car and believed the threat, so he continued to call people to try to get money throughout the entire half-hour drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spot\u201d was the end of an empty parking lot near a grassy area off of the highway. When the two victims arrived in the separate cars, both were forced at gunpoint to kneel on the ground.\u00a0 Phihoang used a blowtorch to burn victim 1\u2019s arm, saying, \u201cI\u2019m gonna burn the tattoo off of you, you don\u2019t deserve to have it. I\u2019m going to torture you,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n
After burning victim 1\u2019s arm, Hill video-called someone demanding money. Hill said on the call, \u201cWe\u2019re not playing,\u201d and then he shot a round into the air before hanging up, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
Victim 2 was wearing an ankle monitor and told the suspects that he had to by home by 1 a.m. or police would come looking for him, the complaint said.<\/p>\n
Hill allegedly forced victim 2 into the back of Anthony Hernandez\u2019s car while the first victim continued to be held at gunpoint as Phihoang punched him. Victim 1 watched some of the suspects burning something and heard one of them say, \u201cWe have to burn the evidence,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
Victim 1 then started to fake a seizure, and the suspects became \u201cnervous\u201d while Hill continuously checked his pulse, the complaint said. Hill put him in the back seat of Anthony Hernandez\u2019s car while Hill got into the back passenger seat. They drove for 10 minutes as the suspects \u201cbegan to panic,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n
Hill told Anthony Hernandez to stop the car, and Hill threw victim 1 out onto the side of the road, the complaint said, before Hill got back inside and the car took off again. Victim 1 told the FBI he stayed on the side of the road, \u201cplaying dead,\u201d before he walked through bushes into a residential neighborhood and found two people walking and asked them to call police.<\/p>\n
Victim 2, who was wearing an ankle monitor, gave the suspects an address in Cooper City where they dropped him off. He walked toward a relative\u2019s house in only his underwear, and the relative called police. He had minor injuries after and was not taken to a hospital.<\/p>\n
Victim 1 was taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale with a cut on the back of his head from being hit by the gun, which required staples, and he was treated for the burn on his arm, the complaint said.<\/p>\n
Clothes, jewelry, electronics and cellphones and other personal belongings were stolen from both victims, the complaint said. Authorities went to \u201cthe spot\u201d the following day and found one of the victim\u2019s house keys, burned clothes and other items, the complaint said.<\/p>\n
All six men were being held in the Paul Rein Detention Facility, jail records show. The men were booked into the jail between June 1 and June 5.<\/p>\n
They each face charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Their arraignments are scheduled for later this month, and they have not yet entered any pleas to the charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six men face federal charges for their alleged role in a kidnapping at the Margaritaville resort in Hollywood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,28,249,251,250,686,114,115,109,15353],"class_list":["post-304345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-hollywood","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-social","tag-weston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}