Feb. 21 (UPI) — A 26-year-old man accused of bludgeoning a woman to death in a Manhattan hotel room earlier this month has been arrested in Arizona where he is accused of attacking two more women, according to authorities who raised worries that he may have additional victims.
Raad Almansoori is believed to be behind the murder of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38, whose body was found Feb. 8 by staff in her room at the SoHo 54 Hotel in Manhattan.
Police had been hunting for him until he was arrested Sunday while driving a stolen car more than 2,400 miles away in Arizona where he is accused of stabbing a McDonald’s employee in the restaurant’s bathroom and carjacking another woman at knifepoint.
Authorities in New York City on Tuesday called on the public nationwide to contact law enforcement if they have seen Almansoori in their communities so officers can inspect potential connections to additional attacks.
“Anywhere that he’s visited there’s potential that there are other victims around the country,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard told reporters Tuesday during a press conference, “and we want to do our due diligence and make sure that we let communities around the country know that they should be aware of who this person is.”
New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Tuesday that he is accused of killing Oleas-Arancibia, whom he identified as an escort, sometime between 2:14 p.m. on Feb. 7 and 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 8 when employees of the hotel found her dead on the floor of her room.
He said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, stating a broken iron was found in the room and that pieces of plastic were removed from her skull.
Their investigation uncovered that Almansoori seemed to have been in a dispute with Oleas-Arancibia over the time he was allowed to stay in her hotel room before she was murdered, Kenny said.
Days later, he is believed to have flown from New York to Arizona where on Saturday he is accused of attempting to carjack a woman and was able to escape the scene. The woman was transported to a local hospital where she is recovering, authorities said.
The next day, the police department in Surprise, Ariz., which is northwest of Phoneix, were called to a McDonald’s near West Greenway and North Reems Roads at about 8:30 a.m. to find a woman suffering from multiple stab wounds.
Kenny said the woman was an employee at the fast food restaurant and that she was dragged into the women’s restroom where she was stabbed multiple times.
Officers began searching for Almansoori, who was later apprehended in Scottsdale driving a stolen car, the Surprise Police Department said in a statement.
Kenny told reporters that Almansoori told police in Arizona that he was wanted for murder in New York City.
“Google SoHo 54 Hotel,” Kenny said Almansoori had told police.
He also told police in Arizona that “he hurt three additional girls in Florida,” Kenny said.
Though he has never been arrested in New York, Almansoori has an “extensive” out-of-state criminal record, Kenny said, stating that his recent spree of crimes occurred as he was out on bail since September following an arrest on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault of an escort in Flordia.
According to jail records, Almansoori is being held in Maricopa County on a slew of charges from theft and robbery to homicide.
The police department in Surprise is expected to have a press conference about the case at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizona is launching a statewide task force aimed at cracking down on cargo theft.
CargoNet estimates $725 million was lost in cargo thefts nationwide in 2025. Arizona is among the states where cargo theft happens most often.
State Sen. Kevin Payne was the sponsor of Senate Bill 1452, which created the Cargo Theft Task Force and was signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs on Monday.
“There’s a lot of cargo theft going on,” Payne said.
The bill creates a statewide cargo theft task force made up of six investigators, legal staff, and any law enforcement designated by the Attorney General’s office. The task force will investigate cargo theft and track new criminal trends.
“I don’t think that people thought it was as serious as it actually is,” Payne said.
Scott Cornell, chief risk officer for SPG Cargo and Logistics and chair of the Transported Asset Protection Association, said he has investigated cargo theft for three decades and that cases have become harder to solve lately
“These large, sophisticated international crime rings have taken over cargo theft in the United States, and they pull the strings from a dozen or two dozen different countries,” Cornell said.
Cornell said addressing cargo theft directly through a specialized task force at the state level could have more impact.
“I think when you address it directly, like Arizona is with a cargo theft task force, you’re bound to have much more impact than a state that doesn’t have that specialization,” he said.
In Arizona, expensive shoes, watches and electronics are among the items stolen from semitrucks and trains in the last couple of years.
“We pay for it,” Cornell said. “The cost is absolutely going to be passed on to the consumer. There’s no question about it.”
Payne said the goal of the task force is to reduce cargo theft in Arizona.
“I sure would like to eliminate a lot of it,” Payne said. “You know, cut it down a lot. Make it to where it’s not profitable for them to do this so they’ll stop.”
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is in charge of establishing the task force. In a statement, the AG’s office says Attorney General Kris Mayes looks forward to continuing the ongoing work to combat retail theft and cargo theft through this task force, and it will coordinate efforts with law enforcement statewide.
The task force’s first report is due to the governor, Senate president and House speaker by July 1, 2027.
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CINCINNATI — An Arizona man has been found guilty of supplying dozens of kilograms of cocaine to multiple U.S. locations, including Cincinnati, bi-weekly for more than five years.
Tucson resident Cesar Cervantes, 52, was convicted of participating in drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracies in a jury trial after the government seized more than 160 kilograms of cocaine, three kilograms of fentanyl and $1.4 million in cash from him.
According to court documents, Cervantes would use a network to deliver drugs that originated in Mexico to multiple locations across the country, including designated couriers in Cincinnati, between at least July 2018 and August 2023. Officials said he would supply between 25 and 50 kilograms biweekly to his coconspirators.
Cervantes would then use money launderers to funnel money back to Mexico. In one instance, court documents said he had coconspirators deliver around $300,000 to two separate money launderers — one based in China and another in Colombia.
The jury found Cervantes guilty on all counts for his role in the conspiracies following a trial before U.S. District Judge Matthew W. McFarland in the Southern District of Ohio. He faces at least 10 years and up to life in prison.
Investigators are analyzing two ransom notes sent after Nancy Guthrie vanished, as a retired FBI agent questions whether the latest message is real. A new development in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance centers on two ransom notes sent to her family after she vanished. Investigators believe the messages may have come from the same person or group, possibly from the same computer IP address. The first note demanded billions in bitcoin, while the second claimed Guthrie had died and offered an apology. Retired FBI agent John Iannarelli says he is skeptical of the second note and questions why the sender has not provided credible information about her location. The case remains active as detectives continue following any reliable leads.
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