Sultan man jailed, accused of trying to set up murder for hire

SULTAN — A Romanian national living in Sultan was arrested Thursday for his alleged connection to a murder-for-hire plot.

The man, Florentin Georgel Minescu, 42, was jailed for investigation of criminal solicitation to commit first-degree murder. A judge Friday ordered him held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Prosecutors offered few details about Minescu’s arrest. Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover explained the circumstances in a press release but did not mention Minescu by name.

The suspect allegedly told police he’d been approached by a Sultan man who was looking for someone to kill the man’s ex-wife, Hover said.

Detectives learned of the plot when a third Sultan man called police and told them the suspect had approached him looking for a hit man, Hover said.

An undercover detective then posed as a potential hit man and spoke with the suspect. He told the detective that the “job” was not for “kids” and he had a “professional” coming to carry out the plot, Hover said.

Later the suspect told police he hadn’t contacted a professional, Hover said.

The suspect allegedly told detectives that the comment about hiring a “professional” was made up.

“He said that conversation took place over the phone and he thought he was talking to someone else — a teenage male – who wasn’t old enough for the job, so he made up the part about already having hired someone,” Hover said.

The suspect was arrested Thursday night, she said. He told detectives a complex story about another Sultan man who he alleged had contacted him to commit murder.

The story involved an ex-wife and a bitter divorce involving children. The story included allegations the ex-wife started seeing a drug dealer and had become a junkie.

Detectives believe the plot was foiled in time and the ex-wife is not in danger now, Hover said.

Prosecutors told an Everett District Court judge that Minescu’s wife lives in Egypt, his children live in Romania and he was planning to move to Philadelphia. They asked that he be ordered to surrender his passport.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com.