Miami

Men Posed as Federal Agents at Versailles, Scuffled With Real Cops: Miami Police

Ismael Diaz, 51, and Alberto Nunez-Horta, 48, were arrested Saturday on multiple charges

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  • Ismael Diaz, 51, and Alberto Nunez-Horta, 48, were arrested Saturday on multiple charges

Two men accused of spending several days posing as federal agents and approaching customers at Versailles in Little Havana are facing charges after officials say they attacked real officers at the restaurant.

Ismael Diaz, 51, and Alberto Nunez-Horta, 48, were arrested Saturday on multiple charges including falsely impersonating an officer, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, according to an arrest report.

The report said the men went to the restaurant on Southwest 8th Street on Wednesday, and at one point Diaz left and returned with his dog. One of the managers told Diaz the dog couldn't stay in the restaurant, but Diaz replied that he is an FBI agent and said the dog "is a federal dog that has to stay with him at all times," the report said.

Diaz pulled something out of his pocket that the manager believed to be credentials, and the manager allowed the dog to stay in the restaurant.

Diaz and Nunez-Horta continued to return to the restaurant, going table to table to speak with customers, the report said. The two spent "several days attempting to befriend customers against those customers wills and harassing other customers," the report said.

When they returned on Saturday, the manager confronted them and asked what they were doing. They told him they were conducting a classified investigation, the report said.

"You want to know who I am call the FBI, the CIA," Diaz told the manager, according to the report.

Both men became verbally abusive and started yelling obscenities, saying they were federal agents and could put everyone in jail, the report said. When they were asked to leave, Diaz said he was going to call the police.

Miami detectives arrived at the restaurant and as one approached Diaz, Diaz said he was a national security agent working for the CIA, the report said. Nunez-Horta then grabbed a detective by the neck and punched him in the face, and Diaz also jumped in and punched the detective several times and ripped the detective's shirt off, the report said.

Diaz and Nunez-Horta were taken into custody, and Diaz told detectives they would have to contact National Security and Homeland Security if they wanted to know more about him, who he works for and what he does, the report said.

During the encounter Diaz identified himself as a five-star general and a CIA agent, and Nunez identified himself as a Homeland Security agent, the report said.

After he was arrested, Nunez also threatened a detective, telling him "when I get out and I am going to find you and kill you," the report said.

Diaz, of Coral Gables, and Nunez-Horta, of North Carolina, were booked into jail and later released on bond. Attorney information wasn't available.

"There's a lot that we're looking at and it is alarming not only because they're passing off as federal agents but because we still don't know why they were there and why they were persistent on going there each and every day," Miami Police spokesperson Kenia Fallat said.

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