When a Hialeah teenager offered someone $2,000 to help him kill two horses on Tuesday, what he didn't know was that police had wired his prospective cohort with a recording device.

Hours later, a joint force of Hialeah and Miami-Dade police arrested Luis Miguel Cordero near a pasture at Northwest 177th Avenue and Okeechobee Road, toting a duffle bag stuffed with garbage bags, rope, tools and a butcher knife.

Cordero, who turned 18 on Sept. 3, now faces multiple felony charges including conspiracy to commit animal cruelty, animal cruelty with intent to injure or kill, armed burglary, and killing a registered breed horse. He was being held without bond Wednesday at the Miami-Dade County jail.

The arrest brought some relief to South Florida's equine community, which has been traumatized by at least 17 and possibly 20 horse slaughters this year.

``I'm delighted -- so happy, so pleased, so proud that the police nabbed the guy,'' said Jeanette Jordan, president of the South Florida SPCA, which has been working with law enforcement agencies to catch the killer or killers.

Horse owners in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have discovered their pets' butchered remains in pastures and along rural roads -- one even in its own stall -- after they became apparent victims of a black-market demand for horse meat.

Police said Cordero, a laborer, confessed to having carved up a horse at 2 a.m. Sept. 9 at the Lazy L Ranch in the 5400 block of Northwest 159th Street in Miami Gardens. With a ``white male that is known to him as Flaco,'' a knife-wielding Cordero ``used a rope to tie the horse's legs and push it to the ground,'' a police report says.

Flaco then ``cut the horse's throat and immediately began to cut the horse's front quarters as the horse was suffering an agonizing death. [Cordero] states that he and Flaco collected the meat they had cut off the horse and fled [the] location in a red pickup truck.''

The report says that Cordero earned $300 for his work, ``which was agreed upon prior to'' the incident. The report did not state who paid him.

``At this point it appears to be an isolated incident,'' said Detective Juan Villalba, a Miami-Dade police spokesman. ``As we do in other cases that have similarities, detectives will be looking into the possiblity that they're related.''

Tuesday, Cordero apparently was on the verge of another attack. A police report says the teen offered a neighbor $2,000 for a lift to the Okeechobee Road location ``to slaughter two horses.'' He also asked the neighbor ``if he knew anyone interested in purchasing horse meat.''

The neighbor played along, then contacted Crime Stoppers and met with Hialeah police detectives. They wired him and placed a tracking device on his vehicle. Crime Stoppers has been offering $15,000 and the Humane Society of the United States another $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in the cases.

Cordero met the neighbor at a Hialeah cafeteria, where an undercover officer with concealed video equipment -- posing as the neighbor's uncle -- began to negotiate a horse meat sale.

Cordero went to his apartment, in the 100 block of West 26th Street, with the neighbor to fetch his duffle bag, the report says. He and the neighbor headed for the pasture, followed by undercover police. About 9:50 p.m., police stopped the car and made the arrest.

``This typifies what can happen when the community gets involved,'' said Capt. Scott Andress, who heads the Miami-Dade police Agricultural Patrol, which has been tracking the slaughters.

But Andress cautioned horse owners not to let down their guard.

``We're asking people to take appropriate measures to secure their ranches or homes with lighting, tamper-resist locks, video cameras, and contact police if they observe anything suspicious,'' he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers, at 305-471-TIPS.