Florida Attorney General Announces Federal Murder Charges Against Alleged MS-13 Members in Cold Case Murders

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced federal murder charges against three alleged MS-13 gang members or associates in connection to the brutal 2015 murder of Gerson Vilelio Vasquez-Portillo, 22, in western Palm Beach County, Fox News reports.

Vasquez-Portillo was believed to be affiliated with a rival gang member.

The arrests are the result of cold-case investigations into a total of four murders that occurred in 2014 and 2015 in and around Broward County in South Florida. One of the victims was reportedly stabbed 100 times before being shot in the head.

“These gangs are organized. They are terrorists,” Bondi stated during a press conference. “And look at these guys, they thought they got away with it for almost a decade but they did not. They are living among us because they think they can get away with this, and they cannot.”

One of the three suspects, Hugo Adiel Bermudez-Martinez, was apprehended in Minnesota. Jose Ezequiel Gamez-Maravilla and Wilber Rosendo Navarro-Escobar were arrested in Florida.

Bondi indicated that prosecutors will review the cases to determine whether to seek the death penalty.

“More arrests are coming,” she warned. “If you are a gang member living in this country, I’d self-deport right now because we’re coming after you.”

The arrests were part of a multi-agency operation, Operation Sombra De La Bestia, or Operation Shadow of the Beast. Bondi was joined by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Broward Sheriff’s Office to make the announcement.

Authorities said five other MS-13 gang members were involved in the slaying of Vasquez-Portillo. The other victims, killed in the Oakland Park area, included:

• Joel Antonio Canizales-Lara, 18: Lured to a vacant field in November 2014 and stabbed to death after falsely claiming to be a gang member. His body, discovered in 2021 after an excavation search, had been stabbed approximately 100 times and buried in a makeshift grave.
• Omar DeJesus Gutierrez, 18: Shot after allegedly flashing rival gang signs. Court documents revealed he was not a documented gang member.
• Chrislet Ondina, 25: Stabbed to death in October 2015 as part of a gang initiation for one suspect, according to court documents.

Authorities stated that killing someone is often part of the initiation process into the MS-13 gang.

Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony emphasized that “justice does not have an expiration date.”

The MS-13 gang, founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants fleeing a civil war, has expanded across the US and is known for extreme violence, including murders, extortion, racketeering, and drug trafficking.