U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Friday that one of three alleged MS-13 gang members recently arrested in connection to a brutal gang-related Florida murder 10 years ago had been located in Minnesota.
Bondi announced the arrest during a press conference alongside other officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Broward County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office, which has been trying to track down the suspects for over a decade.
Arrested in Minnesota last month was Hugo Adiel Bermudez-Martinez, 30, who a federal indictment unsealed on Friday alleges is an MS-13 gang member. Bermudez-Martinez is accused of being one of nine people allegedly connected to a series of murders in south Florida from 2014 to 2015.
Bermudez-Martinez along with Jose Ezequiel Gamez-Mara Villa and Wilber Rosendo Navarro-Escobar are named in the federal indictment out of the Southern District of Florida and are each charged with murder in aid of racketeering activity. The indictment alleges the three “intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury” that resulted in the death of the victim “for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing [their] position in MS-13.” The three citizens of El Salvador were in the U.S. illegally, Bondi said.
Bondi described that the victim had been stabbed about 100 times, like a “piñata,” and was shot in the head as part of gang initiation and advancement activity.
Five of the other defendants connected to the series of murders have pled guilty in the last six months, and the sixth defendant was convicted at trial. All are facing life in prison, and Bondi specified that the three newly charged defendants would be reviewed for prosecution and sentencing under the death penalty.
“Nine MS-13 terrorists have been taken off our streets and four cold murder cases have been solved thanks to the great investigative work of the FBI and our law enforcement partners,” said Attorney General Bondi in a later press release. “Let this be a lesson: no matter how long it takes, we will never give up in our pursuit of justice.”
Bermudez-Martinez was arrested by the FBI last month in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood of St. Paul. Minnesota court records indicate that Bermudez-Martinez has been in the state since at least late 2017, indicated by traffic-related citations in Ramsey County under his name in 2017 and 2018. Records also show Bermudez-Martinez was involved in divorce proceedings in Ramsey County throughout 2024.
As of Friday, Bermudez-Martinez remained in federal custody in detention at Sherburne County Jail.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
