By Associated Press - Monday, May 26, 2014

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) - Two men are facing lengthy federal prison sentences after pleading guilty to committing a string of armed robberies along Interstate 95 in Florida.

Yubran Alvarez Vasquez of Bluffton, South Carolina, and Matthew Emmanuel Vasquez of Savannah, Georgia, admitted last week they used a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime. That charge carries a minimum 35-year prison sentence up to a maximum of life.

Authorities say the pair targeted gas stations and hotels along I-95 from Melbourne to Jupiter. In February 2013, they went on a five-hour spree in which they robbed two gas stations and two hotels at gunpoint.

One man fired his gun during a robbery at a Holiday Inn Express in Vero Beach, but no one was injured.

Sentencing is set Aug. 27 in Fort Pierce.

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