Florida Officials Announce Arrests in MS-13 Cold Case Murders

Good morning. Thank you for being here. We have been out since about 4.30 this morning. The great men and women of law enforcement have been working on this operation for days and days and probably weeks. This morning, early this morning, one of the top leaders of MS-13 was apprehended. He was the leader for the East Coast, one of the top three in the entire country. Right here in Virginia, living half an hour outside of Washington, D.C. He is an illegal alien from El Salvador, and he will not be living in our country much longer. He's in custody this morning. One of the top leaders right here near our nation's capital. I just cannot thank Governor Yunkin enough for his leadership in this effort. This has been a joint effort with state and local agencies. FBI, Director Patel, thank you so much. Terry Cole, Virginia Secretary of Public Safety. Our U.S. Attorney, Eric Siebert. DHS Secretary Noem, of course, who is in El Salvador, the home country currently of our illegal alien. DEA Acting Director Maltz, thank you. Our U.S. Marshals Service, ATF, all of the members of our task force who have been working tirelessly. We were out at that scene this morning, and what we saw was second to none teamwork, everyone working together. Someone made a great point, no egos. It was a team. You could not tell who was with what agency. Everyone was working as a team, and the most important thing, all of our agents were safe this morning, all of our law enforcement officers, and the bad guy is in jail. That's what matters. That's what happened. America is safer today because of one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13, he is off the streets. This has been an ongoing directive of President Trump. His directive to me when I became Attorney General. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us here today at this press conference related to an operation that's been ongoing, ongoing quite frankly for almost a decade now. This is related to MS-3 gang members and the brutality and the nature of the criminal activities that they committed here, not only in Broward County, but in other parts of the state of Florida and Palm Beach. I'm proud to introduce partners that we have here in attendance today who have contributed to this investigation from providing resources, investigative tools, and our legal guidance to include our Attorney General Pamela Bondi, Associate Attorney General nominee Stanley Woodward, Deputy Chief of Staff Katherine Cipher, and from the U.S. Attorney's Office, allow me to introduce United States Attorney Hayden O'Brien, his team, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Manuel Rimboso, and Special Prosecution Chief Brian Dobson. Folks, for several years now, this community has witnessed me stand here and talk about the importance of executing investigations regardless of how long ago they occurred. The crimes that we're going to talk about today took place back in 2014-15, and had it not been for the efforts of our Cold Case Unit, which we launched back in 2019, and their ability to dig into these cases and no longer see boxes and hallways and dismiss the fact that these are victims, these are people, these are members of someone's loved one or family that are no longer here. And so today, as the Attorney General introduces her team and talk about the success that we have in this case, I want this community to remember, here in Broward County, justice doesn't have an expiration date. It doesn't matter when you committed the crime, it doesn't matter what part of this world you are 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 resource just to bring you to justice. So without further ado, allow me to introduce our U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Thank you, Sheriff. I feel like I'm back home being here in Broward. To our victims' families first, we met with them earlier. Thank you for being here, and we're so sorry. And as Sheriff Tony said, your victim was not just sitting there in a box of papers. They are a victim, and that's why they have spent a decade finding some of these people who have killed your loved ones. So we're very sorry for your loss, and I know you have to relive this, and thank you for being here today. We're so sorry you're going through this. Sheriff Tony, thank you for your relentless pursuit of justice in these cold cases. And these cases are never cold when it comes to law enforcement. And I want to also thank Hayden O'Byrne, where's Hayden, our acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, and Brett Stiles, our SAC, for the special agent in charge for the FBI, and to all the great men and women of the Broward County Sheriff's Office, where our Border Patrol agents, all of our agents who are here who have done so much to help. Thank you all to the men and women, especially of Broward, and our victims' advocates, our interpreters who have helped with this case. It takes a lot of people to make these cases, and they're so very, very important. And today, we're here to announce the arrest of three more MS-13 gang members who were in this country illegally, and they were in Florida, and we will be reviewing them. They've all been arrested for first-degree murder. We will be reviewing them to see if we will seek the death penalty. This has been a long-running investigation that started in 2015. The victim in this case was brutally, brutally murdered, stabbed approximately 100 times by multiple gang members before he was shot in the head. He suffered tremendously. And these indictments are a warning to all criminals. We don't care how long ago you committed the crime. We don't care where you go. We will find you, we will arrest you, and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. Gamez Maravilla was located in Lake County, Florida. Get ready for this. He was hanging drywall at the Villages when he was arrested. Barmudez Martinez was apprehended in Minnesota. Great police work by all of our federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies working together. Found this guy in Minnesota. He thought he got away with this crime, and he did not. Navarro Martinez arrested right here in North Lauderdale. They are charged with brutal, brutal, a brutal murder of a young man. One of these defendants sought him out, convinced him to come with him in his car, took him to a crime scene where they are all charged with violently stabbing him, almost like a game, to get a higher level in their gang initiation. They were all part of an MS-13, it's called CLIC, a CLIC that was living right here in Florida. They're not just a street gang, they are a highly organized terrorist organization. Last week in Virginia, you all saw, we arrested one of the worst MS-13 gang members. He was one of the top three leaders of MS-13 in our entire country. He was living right in Virginia, half an hour away from D.C., in a nice apartment complex with normal neighbors, bicycles in yards. They are living among us because they think they can get away with this, and they cannot. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing guns, and especially violence to our country, and under Donald Trump's presidency, that has stopped. Every seven minutes, an American dies of a drug overdose. Over 75,000 people die a year of fentanyl overdoses. More than two homicides an hour happen in America. We know there is so much more work to be done, and that's why we are all here fighting for victims of crime. These gangs are organized, they are terrorists, and look at these three guys. They thought they got away with it for almost a decade, but they did not. Thanks to the great men and women of law enforcement, they were found, they were arrested, and if convicted, they will never see the light of day again. 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. It's my honor today to introduce U.S. Attorney Hayden O'Byrne with the Southern District of Florida. Hayden, thank you and your team for your tireless work on everything that you've done to keep Florida safe, but also to keep our country safe by taking these terrorists off our streets. Thank you, Hayden. Thank you, General. Thank you. Thank you, General Bondi, for your support of the really strong state and federal partnerships that we have here in Florida and elsewhere across the country. Today is just one example of what we can do when law enforcement works together as a team, as Sheriff Tony and General Bondi have demonstrated here with what we're able to do. When we join forces like this, we can solve cold cases from 10 years ago. We can solve these homicides. We can bring terrorists to justice. We can take back America, and I hope that we can provide some solace to the victims of these horrific, horrific crimes. Sheriff Tony, thank you so much for your support in this case. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you. Thank you for your support for so many things, including doing an excavation to find the body of the victim years after that lot was turned into a housing complex. Thank you to the cold case detectives and everyone else at your office that worked tirelessly to pursue these individuals, not just in South Florida, but across the country. Now, I also want to thank the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, Florida Department of Corrections, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and everyone else that was involved in this prosecution. We couldn't have done it without you, but when we work together, we can achieve these indictments and we can secure the convictions of these terrorists. The United States Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice, we will not stop working to pursue these terrorists and take back America. Thank you. I'd like to welcome to the stage the SAC of the Miami Field Office of the FBI, Brett Skiles. Good morning. So on March 6, 2025, three MS-13 members were indicted for violent crimes and aid of racketeering, also known as VICAR. For murders part of an ongoing FBI investigation involving four homicides in Broward and Palm Beach counties. So these three indictments represent the last of nine subjects believed to be involved in four homicides. Within the last six months, five other MS-13 members have pleaded guilty, and the sixth was convicted at trial for VICAR murder related to this investigation. One of the convicted, or I'm sorry, the convicted MS-13 members currently, one of them is facing life sentence. All the others, if convicted, are also facing life sentences. MS-13 is a violent international criminal organization that has no respect for borders, law enforcement, or human life. In fact, one of the final tests for membership is to commit murder. It made inroads into many cities across the country, committing a variety of crimes, including drug trafficking and extortion, and they must be stopped. This is why the FBI is dedicated to disrupting and dismantling the most significant gangs through intelligence-driven investigations and partnerships such as our Safe Streets Task Forces, the National Gang Intelligence Center, and our Transnational Anti-Gang Task Forces. Again, I want to thank our partners in this complex investigation to include U.S. Attorney's Office, Customs and Border Protection, the Broward Sheriff's Office, U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, and the Florida Department of Corrections Office of the Inspector General. Additionally, I want to highlight the ongoing case, or I'm sorry, the ongoing close cooperation with our law enforcement partners in El Salvador and Mexico on this and other investigations. Only through the hard work and diligence of law enforcement professionals within these organizations was this investigation a success. The fight isn't over. Together, as a great law enforcement community, we're better positioned to root out any gang that seeks to commit violence against our citizens and the communities that we serve. So now to the South Florida community, we encourage anyone who may have information about gang activity to come forward and report it. This information is vital to our ability to keep the South Florida community safe. Thank you. Thank you and thank you to Director Patel. You have both, the FBI has been working tirelessly to take these illegal aliens and all of these criminals off of our streets. Are there any questions? Hi. Obviously, the MS-13 gang has been here for the last 10 years. This is a cold case. Can you please explain and expand on the scope of how long and why this gang, specifically in Florida, has affected our communities? Well, if you could see the pictures of this victim, too, brutally, brutally, any homicide in my opinion is brutal, but brutally stabbed, it was over 100 times, right, Sheriff? All over his body, I mean his neck, his chest, his entire body, almost like a game. Didn't they call it a pinata? They called him a pinata. That's how frightening and dangerous these people are. These gangs are organized terrorists. They have a command structure and one of the reasons they commit murders in this way is to increase their level within the gang. So yes, they have been operating right here. One of them, as I said, was caught in Minnesota. They are living among us, the most violent of violent, but no longer, thanks to great police work and again, state, local, and federal agencies working so well together. We're going to find them all and take them off the streets. These three were here illegally from El Salvador. Can you explain how the nine and possibly ten there, are they responsible for more than one murder? If you can talk about the scope. Multiple murders for the other ones. Do you want to take that? Multiple murders. Yes, there were a total of four murders involving these defendants down here in South Florida. In the trial that just concluded, the people you see on the top row either pled guilty or were convicted of those murders and then basically everyone on that was involved with the last murder that we've charged and the three individuals that have been charged were involved in that last murder. They were part of the gang where they all went out and brutally stabbed the individual over a hundred times as part of the gang initiation. The three on the top there on the left, they're the ones for that Oakland Park murder? Yes, everybody was involved in the Oakland Park murder and then there were three other murders down here in South Florida that various gang members were involved with. Ms. Bondi, a question not related to this terrible tragedy. As you know, it is routine for the department and the FBI to investigate matters such as the signal scandal, the inappropriate interactions between Senator's cabinet and the Secretary of State on security and national defense information. Last week you told the reporter that the reason you've chosen not to investigate that was because this information has not been classified. The predicate for opening investigations in the past has not been classification. It's been sensitive national security information. So I have two questions. First, can you tell me how you know it wasn't classified if you haven't investigated? I have not discussed it with the president. And secondly, the agencies themselves said it was sensitive, not classified. I believe one inspector general is looking at it now. Those cases would have to be referred to me. They have not been referred to me. They are being looked at interagency currently. Anyone else? Nothing has been referred to us. These are intelligence agencies and they are reviewing it internally. I can take one more. Yeah, hey Betsy. I don't think anyone defied an order by a judge. That's pending in court right now. I think our attorneys have argued in court. I think there were arguments yesterday. We're awaiting a ruling. I anticipate this will go to the Supreme Court, be ruled in our favor. I don't believe anyone defied a court order. I think testimony came out in court that those planes not only had taken off but were outside of American airspace. Moreover, they were illegal aliens from El Salvador, just like these guys on this chart. Who are committing violent, violent murders throughout our country. They were some of the worst of the worst to qualify under the Alien Enemies Act. And we should be concerned about the victims of these crimes here in our state. More than these defendants. Thank you all.