The Fall of Francisco Javier Guerra - Part I

 

Francisco Guerra was born in Cuba in 1968. Now 52, Guerra has lived in this country since he was six years old and is an American citizen. The former refugee is a long time resident of Lauderdale County, having lived in both Anderson and Lexington. He may soon have a new address involving a long personal identification number.

Guerra is the owner of at least eleven companies registered to do business in Florida. It would appear that our local entrepreneur also has a home in West Palm Beach, as well as several bank accounts with highly fluctuating balances. Getting a picture here?

On Thursday, Fran Guerra was served with an arrest warrant involving 39 counts of money laundering. It's also been alleged that there were other warrants served at the same time, but no public announcements. Ostensibly, all 39 charges involved money laundering, a type of racketeering. It seems logical to anticipate the IRS entering the fray with accusations of tax fraud. The word embezzlement has also be batted around.

Guerra was initially processed by federal authorities in Huntsville, but he will soon be required to report to federal court in the Southern District of Florida for an initial hearing. At that time, more details of his alleged crimes should come to light.

While many in Lexington and Rogersville had anticipated Guerra's arrest, others were completely gobsmacked. It seems that Fran, according to his bio, is a reserve police officer in Rogersville. He often flew the city's rescue helicopter...to Cracker Barrel?

Guerra has often made mention of his helicopter and his huge Mercedes SUV, often attributing at least part of his wealth to sales of his life story This Is How You Do It, Kid. His autobiography is his only offering on Amazon or Smashwords. At $12.95 a copy, our local entrepreneur would earn about $4.55 on a single sale. In June 2017, Guerra reported to Facebook fans that he used a month's royalties to purchase a 130K G-Class Merc SUV. Did Guerra actually sell over 29,000 copies of his book in one month, or was this merely a smokescreen to explain his elaborate purchases on his publicly stated salary?

Yet for all his real or pretend wealth, Guerra rarely helped the Lexington community. Tomorrow we'll have part two this story. It's an eye opener...