MS-13 Leader Wanted for Assassination of Four People in Honduras Arrested in Grand Island

United States Attorney Lesley A. Woods announced that Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto, of Grand Island, Nebraska, was charged with illegal entry of an unlawfully present alien in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska.

An unsealed complaint affidavit underlying the arrest alleges that Cuadra Soto, a Honduran national, was a leader in MS-13 who was part of a professional assassination squad for the criminal organization. After being charged in Honduras in 2022 with firearms charges related to the quadruple homicide, Cuadra Soto and two co-defendants were allegedly able to bribe their way out of the Honduran jail.  

Following the bribe, Cuadra Soto is alleged to have entered the United States illegally in 2022 by crossing into the State of Texas from the Country of Mexico.  From there, the complaint alleges that Cuadra Soto obtained a California driver’s license in his true identity.  Federal agents then tracked him to the District of Nebraska where Cuadra Soto established a residence in Grand Island. He was arrested without incident on December 8, 2025, in Grand Island.

A complaint is a charging document that contains one or more individual counts that are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations.