Millionaire Miami developer Sergio Pino’s twisted plan before killing himself during an FBI raid on his $7.9 million home after his wife’s divorce descended into chaos

A millionaire real estate mogul who killed himself as police raided his mansion paid two death squads to kill his ex-wife, FBI said.

Sergio Pino, 67, killed himself Tuesday at his $7.9 million home on the Coral Gables marina in Miami as federal agents closed in.

The FBI SWAT team was there to arrest him for paying assassins to kill Tatiana Pino, 55, during their bitter divorce battle, but he wouldn’t let them take him alive.

Hitmen poisoned Tatiana with fentanyl, threatened their daughter with a gun, tried to make her flee alone on the road or burn down her sister’s house.

Nine other people were arrested after allegedly accepting contracts of up to $300,000 to murder Tatiana and ensure Pino could not be blamed.

Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, detailed the murder plot Wednesday after Pino’s suicide.

“This case concerns a husband, Mr. Pino, who decided, after years of marriage, to kill his wife,” he said.

Pino’s efforts began after Tatiana filed for divorce in April 2022 after 30 years of marriage and two daughters, Alexander and Carolina Pino.

He first tried to slowly and secretly poison her with fentanyl over months, as was revealed during their divorce proceedings later in 2022.

“When that failed, he put a contract out on her head twice, hiring separate groups of hitmen to do the job,” Lapointe said.

He explained that the first murder team hired by Pino allegedly included Bayron Bennett, who was a part-time food and beverage server on his yacht “Century Star,” and three others – Micahael Dulfo, Edner Etienne and Jerren Howard.

They were charged in connection with an arson and attempted hit-and-run on Tatiana and her sister, which came to light after an earlier FBI raid on June 24.

The hitmen allegedly set fire to three cars outside his sister’s house and tried to run her over in a flatbed truck rented from Home Depot.

The attempted hit-and-run on August 30 ended in bitter failure. He was seen on CCTV footage waiting near Tatiana’s house and then crashing into the passenger side door of her car.

Pino then hired a second team, allegedly including Diori Barnard, Clementa Johnson, Vernon Green, Avery Bivins and Fausto Villar.

Pino met Villar, a convicted felon, while doing roofing work for him.

He promised them $150,000 to carry out the murder before the next divorce hearing, and double that if the murder could not be pinned on him, according to charging documents.

Green allegedly tried to carry out the hit, but failed when Tatiana fought back and he ended up pointing a gun at Carolina’s face.

He tried to ambush her as she pulled into her driveway on June 23, pointing a gun at her car, court documents say.

Tatiana sped her car through her yard to escape, scraping a tree and a fence, and honked her horn constantly to attract attention.

Green allegedly chased her into the backyard, but then returned to the front where Carolina had come out to see what was going on.

He pointed his gun “inches from her face,” grabbed her and ordered her to come inside, which she did, then fled in a Dodge Ram pickup.

After rounding up suspected members of both crews and questioning them, the FBI arrested Pino at his mansion Tuesday morning.

Officers called for anyone inside to surrender and burst inside after no one answered, finding Pino dead in an upstairs bedroom.

The FBI said he was alone with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead by the medical examiner.

Aerial footage of the raid’s aftermath showed front doors and windows smashed by the SWAT team, a medical examiner’s van in the driveway and a body being carried on a stretcher to the private pier out back.

Pino’s attorney, Sam Rabin, said the number of police officers present during the raid was “unprecedented and unnecessary” and maintained his client’s innocence.

“Unfortunately, I no longer have a living client to enable me to respond to the government’s new allegations,” he said.

“That’s because prosecutors ignored my emails and phone conversations in which I volunteered to turn Mr. Pino over if they wanted to arrest him.

“Although I have not seen any of the evidence the government claims to have, the narrative it is putting forward is contrary to the person and character of Sergio Pino.”

Pino was the chairman of Century Homebuilders Group, billed as the nation’s largest Hispanic-owned homebuilder.

According to divorce documents, his fortune was estimated at $153 million, but there were disputes over the actual amount.

One filing estimated their combined wealth at $359 million, but Pino said he made that figure up as a “joke” using “made-up” numbers, and that the $153 million was accurate.

Tatiana said in her divorce filings that she was hospitalized several times and that doctors found fentanyl in her system.

In her deposition in September 2022, Tatiana said she had been ill for three years and was “in and out of hospitals.”

At the time, Sergio’s attorney, Sam Rabin, asked his client’s wife: “Do you believe your husband poisoned you?”

“I think so,” Tatiana replied.

She was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2022, when doctors struggled to diagnose her.

Tatiana had trouble breathing and had to be intubated six times before doctors discovered she had the deadly narcotic in her system.

Once released, doctors told Sergio’s wife not to return to her “normal environment” as she stayed with her sister while she recovered.

“They were afraid for me because if this had happened to me again, I would have died,” Tatiana said, according to the records.

During her recovery, Tatiana recalls that after she left home with her husband, her symptoms began to disappear.

When her husband’s lawyer asked her what motive Sergio might have had for poisoning her, Tatiana suggested that he might have tried to kill her for financial gain.

“I don’t think my cleaners have a motive. It might have a financial motive,” she had said previously.

Rabin continued to question Tatiana, but her lawyer, Raymond Rafool, advised him not to talk about the investigation by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

Deanna Shifrin, the attorney for Sergio’s family, said that although Tatiana has been seen by numerous medical professionals over the years, she admitted under oath that none of her illnesses have been confirmed to be caused by poisoning.

“In other words, there is no objective evidence that Ms Pino was poisoned by anyone,” Shifrin told DailyMail.com.

“To be clear, Mr Pino is devastated by these attacks on him and his family and denies any suggestion that he is responsible for them.”

The lawyer added that the husband “was also the victim of threats and acts of vandalism during his divorce proceedings.”

In divorce court documents, Tatiana said she was entitled to spousal support because she stopped working and became a stay-at-home mom to her and Sergio’s children.

The filing adds that the family lives “a lavish and luxurious lifestyle” that Tatiana is unable to maintain on her own.

Sergio said his wife had “expressly waived their right” to alimony through their original marriage contract, according to a counterpetition.

Tatiana came back and said she had signed a post-nuptial agreement “under duress and coercion.”

The case file reveals that the couple first married on April 9, 1992, in a civil ceremony, but the day before their “long-planned religious wedding ceremony and party,” Sergio allegedly “ambushed” her with the agreement.

“These factors led Ms. Pino to believe that she could not say no to signing the postnuptial agreement without disappointing her husband – whom she trusted – as well as her family and friends who were eagerly awaiting the celebration the following day,” the filing states.

“For this reason, Tatiana maintains that the marriage contract is not enforceable.”

Sergio runs Century Homebuilders Group — the “nation’s largest Hispanic-owned homebuilder,” according to the company’s website.

He is widely known for his status as a high-profile businessman and his influential relationships with national and local politicians.

In 2022, Sergio’s company partnered with another successful Miami-based real estate developer, Treo Group, and purchased 10.5 acres in Florida City with plans to build 131 townhomes, The Real Deal reported.

Century Homebuilders paid $6.3 million for the project. The group recently completed a four-bedroom, 537-unit complex in Doral.