Two women were arrested in connection to an alleged murder-for-hire plot targeting the ex-boyfriend of one of the women, Montgomery County police said Wednesday in a statement.
Adelaida Consuelo Zacarias Chacon, 53, of Germantown and Reyna Gomez Lopez, 40, of Philadelphia were arrested by county officers assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, police said.
Zacarias Chacon is charged with first-degree conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree solicitation to commit murder and is being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit in Rockville, police said.
According to digital court documents, Zacarias Chacon was arrested on Tuesday and is being represented by a public defender. A spokesperson for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s request for comment Wednesday evening.
Gomez Lopez is facing a charge of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder and is awaiting extradition to the county, according to police. The Maryland courts database did not include records and attorney information for Gomez Lopez Wednesday evening.
County police did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s request for information regarding when and where the two women were arrested.
According to police, a case worker with the county sheriff’s office in late June contacted a county detective. The caseworker had “received information that Zacarias Chacon had tried to hire someone to kill her ex-boyfriend,” police said.
However, according to charging documents, Zacarias Chacon called the county sheriff’s office on June 28 and said she attempted to hire someone to kill her ex-husband. Zacarias Chacon allegedly said the effort was unsuccessful and that she believed Gomez Lopez, her ex-sister-in-law, may have been kidnapped during the attempt.
After the call, county police “checked the welfare of Zacarias Chacon” and her ex-boyfriend, according to charging documents. Upon arrival at Zacarias Chacon’s home, she told officers that Gomez Lopez “gave her bad advice and then scammed her,” but later said she paid her ex-sister-in-law $1,000 to hire two hit men in Philadelphia, documents state.
Zacarias Chacon allegedly wanted to kill her ex-boyfriend because he left her for another woman, according to charging documents.
Zacarias Chacon told police during the investigation that she had “confided in her ex-sister-in-law on a regular basis,” documents state. When Zacarias Chacon told Gomez Lopez about her ex-boyfriend leaving, Gomez Lopez allegedly told her that “she should have [him] killed” and that Gomez Lopez could find a hitman for $1,000.
On May 28, Zacarias Chacon deposited the money into Gomez Lopez’s account, charging documents said. Then Gomez Lopez told Zacarias Chacon she would bring two hitmen to meet with her. They allegedly planned for the ex-boyfriend to do landscaping for the men so they could meet and later kill him.
That same day, Zacarias Chacon began to believe she was being scammed when Gomez Lopez said she needed $2,000 more to “complete the job,” according to the charging documents. Gomez Lopez said she would tell the ex-boyfriend about the murder plot and claimed “[she] would be killed if the money wasn’t deposited. [Zacarias Chacon] eventually blocked Gomez Lopez’ number,” charging documents state.
Detectives later obtained search warrants for the cellphones of Zacarias Chacon and Gomez Lopez and found messages between the women that discussed killing the ex-boyfriend and requesting the hitmen to wear masks and gloves.
In addition, on Gomez Lopez’s phone, detectives saw messages between her and an unknown man discussing a job that pays $2,000. “When he asks what the job is, she states it’s to “break a man’s head,” the charging documents said. The man then declined to assist with the job.
According to charging documents, police obtained an arrest warrant for Zacarias Chacon on Oct. 24.
