A Florida candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives was charged with threatening to kill his primary opponent in a 2021 election and an acquaintance of his opponent.

The Department of Justice said William Robert Braddock III and his primary political opponent were candidates in the 2021 election for the 13th Congressional District of Florida in Pinellas County on the Gulf Coast.

The indictment, unsealed Thursday, stated that an acquaintance of Braddock’s started receiving multiple threats during a telephone call June 8, 2021. The DOJ said the caller, identified as Braddock, threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” to make his opponent disappear.

After sending the alleged threats, the DOJ said Braddock fled to the Philippines but was recently deported back to the U.S. and made his first court appearance in Los Angeles.

Braddock is charged with one count of interstate transmission of a true threat to injure another person, according to the DOJ. If convicted, the 41-year-old faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The FBI Tampa Field Office is investigating the case with support from the St. Petersburg Police Department. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI’s Office of the Legal Attaché in Manila and the U.S. Marshals Service provided substantial assistance. The investigation also benefited from foreign law enforcement cooperation provided by the Philippine Department of Justice and the Philippine Bureau of Immigration.