Attorney General Pam Bondi announced federal murder charges against three alleged MS-13 gang members or associates in connection to the brutal murder of a man in Florida.
The three are accused of stabbing and shooting Gerson Vilelio Vasquez-Portillo, 22, in western Palm Beach County in 2015. He was believed to be an affiliate of a rival gang member.
The arrests are part of cold-case investigations into a total of four murders which took place in 2014 and 2015 in and around Broward County in South Florida, officials said. One of the victims was stabbed 100 times before being shot in the head.
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“These gangs are organized. They are terrorists. And look at these guys, they thought they got away with it for almost a decade but they did not,” Bondi said. “They are living among us because they think they can get away with this, and they cannot.”
Bondi said that one of the three suspects recently arrested, Hugo Adiel Bermudez-Martinez, was picked up in Minnesota. Jose Ezequiel Gamez-Maravilla and Wilber Rosendo Navarro-Escobar were arrested in Florida.
“We will be reviewing them to see if we will seek the death penalty,” Bondi said. “More arrests are coming. 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 named Operation Sombra De La Bestia, or Operation Shadow of the Beast. Bondi was also joined by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and the Broward Sheriff’s Office to make the announcement.
Five other MS-13 gang members were involved in the slaying of Vasquez-Portillo.
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The other victims were killed in the Oakland Park area and included Joel Antonio Canizales-Lara, 18, who was lured to a vacant field in November 2014 and stabbed to death after he had falsely claimed to have been a gang member, authorities said. Bondi said he was stabbed around 100 times.
He was then buried in a makeshift grave with his body beng found in 2021 after an excavation search.
Omar DeJesus Gutierrez, 18, was shot after he allegedly flashed rival gang signs. He was not a documented gang member, according to court documents.
Chrislet Ondina, 25, was stabbed to death in October 2015 as part of a gang initiation for one suspect, per the documents.
Authorities said Friday that killing someone is often part of the initiation process into the gang.
Tirado-Silva and Cruz-Ortiz were involved in three of the murders while Tovar was involved in two, authorities said.
Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said that justice does not have an expiration date.
“It doesn’t matter when you committed the crime. It doesn’t matter what part of this world you’re from. If you come here in this community and decide that you’re going to take a life, we’re going to unleash every single resources to bring you to justice,” Tony said.
The MS-13 gang was founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants fleeing a civil war. They have since expanded across the U.S. and are known for extreme violence, including murders, extortion, racketeering and drug trafficking.
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