AN AMERICAN fugitive who hired a teenage hitman to kill his three brothers has been arrested at Valencia Airport.
The Policia Nacional and FBI cooperated to detain the man last Saturday morning.
In December 2021, Samuel Huggler, 27, paid 5,000 US dollars to a friend of his- Daniel Alvey- to kill his siblings so that they would not testify against him in a pending court case.
The family lived in Evansville, Indiana and Alvey, 18, was given a gun by Huggler who told him to enter the property via the garage.
Bullets hit two of the brothers in the head and the third in the body, but they all survived.
Huggler’s sister, who had just turned 18, died instantly from a gunshot wound to the head.
Alvey was arrested and the teenage hitman was given 45 years behind bars, but initially said that his friend Huggler had nothing to do with what happened, before recanting his claim.
Accusing Huggler of paying him for the hit meant that he avoided the death penalty.
FBI agents could not find any clues to find Huggler but eventually discovered that he had been in Andorra since last summer, with the US having no extradition treaty with the country.
It was then a question of waiting for Huggler to set foot in Spain or any other European Union territory.
Agents found that his partner had recently travelled to the United States after giving birth to their child.
It was discovered that she would be flying into Spain bound for Valencia, but with a stop-over in Madrid.
Surveillance devices were established at both airports in case she was trying to throw police off her trail.
Finally, Huggler’s partner arrived at Valencia airport on Saturday, and her partner was arrested while waiting to pick her up.
The National Court in Madrid is handling his extradition with US authorities having 45 days to present formal charges, ahead of a hearing.
Samuel Huggler has denied ordering the hits and blamed the charges on ‘corruption’ in the United States.
