South Florida bail bondsmen arrested, 3 on armed kidnapping charges

KEY LARGO, Fla. — Four Florida Keys bail bondsmen, two of whom were already facing legal trouble in Miami-Dade County, were booked into South Florida jails on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Authorities said Eduardo Caceres, 47, of Miami-Dade; Luis Hernandez Salas, 34, of Florida City; Alexander Michael Rispa, 43, of Homestead; and Juan Carlos Soto Arraga, 30, of southwest Miami-Dade, were all involved with Paradise Bail Bonds.

The company is based at 100410 Overseas Highway in Key Largo. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Department of Financial Services jointly announced the arrests on Thursday.

“The commendable joint effort between our FDLE agents and DFS investigators was a key factor in holding these schemers accountable,” FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass said in the release.

Hernandez, Caceres and Rispa face the most serious charges, including a count each of armed kidnapping.

Rispa and Soto were arrested in Miami-Dade in July after being accused of bailing out a couple who never hired them and then extorting them. Miami-Dade court records show extortion cases against the pair remained active as of Thursday.

As for the latest cases, an arrest warrant filed by DFS investigators states that on Jan. 11, 2022, Rispa, “lacking legal Florida appointments,“ unlawfully forced his way into a Miami-Dade home to take a man out on bond into custody, battering the homeowner in the process.

Rispa did this, investigators said, while illegally displaying a gun and wearing a badge as well as body armor inscribed with the word “AGENT.”

Authorities said he was joined by Hernandez and Caceres.

Investigators accused them of handcuffing the man out on bond and taking him against his will across county lines to the Keys, where he was released into the custody of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on an outstanding failure to appear warrant.

Caceres recorded video of the incident and posted it “on multiple social media accounts,” the warrant states.

According to the warrant, Rispa admitted that a bondsman cannot legally recover someone if they are not appointed with the same insurance company.

Investigators also said he acknowledged that “wearing an exposed firearm, exposed tactical vest with a patch with the wording (AGENT) only, and exposed badge, is illegal per the Florida Department of Financial Services and Florida State Statute.”

“Mr. Rispa stated the reason he wore a badge and a vest identifying himself as an (AGENT) (was) for ‘apparent authority,’” an investigator wrote.

Meanwhile, Rispa and Hernandez are also accused of “allowing and aiding Soto to operate as an unlicensed Florida bail bond agent.”

Investigators noted that Soto is Hernandez’s brother-in-law.

Soto is accused of soliciting families of inmates, negotiating bond terms and arranging releases for financial gain despite “not being a qualified, licensed, or appointed Florida Bail Bond Agent.”

He faces charges of acting as a bail bondsman without a license, unlawful use of a communications device and two fraud charges.

Caceres, Rispa and Hernandez, in addition to the kidnapping charge, face counts of fraud, unlawful use of a communications device, detaining a principle on bond while not appointed, fraud and battery.

Hernandez, Rispa and Soto were arrested in Monroe County Tuesday and bonded out.

Caceres turned himself in to the FDLE on Wednesday and was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He later bonded out.

“We are a law-and-order state,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said in the news release. “We will not tolerate these crimes, or any other financial crimes, as they impact the citizens of our great State of Florida.”

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