Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story identified Manuel Marin as Presidente Supermarket’s co-founder, instead he’s a former owner of some Presidente stores.
A former MMA fighter wanted in the 2011 killing of a man linked to a former owner of some Presidente Supermarket stores was behind bars in South Florida Wednesday after spending years on the run, authorities said.
Ariel Gandulla, 51, was booked into the Miami-Dade jail Tuesday night to face charges of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and kidnapping, jail records showed.
During a brief court appearance Wednesday, Gandulla was ordered held without bond. Attorney information wasn't available.
Gandulla is one of four suspects in the June 2011 murder of 43-year-old Camilo Salazar, the alleged lover of the Manuel Marin's wife. Marin is a former owner of some President Supermarket stores.
Salazar's body was found on a dirt road in the Florida Everglades in northwest Miami-Dade on June 1, 2011. He was bound, beaten, tortured, had his throat slashed and his body was partially burned, according to a police report.
Manuel Marin was taken into custody in Spain last year after years on the run and is facing trial in Miami on the same charges Gandulla faces. Also accused in the plot is another former mixed martial artist, Alexis Vila Perdomo, and fight trainer and promoter Roberto Isaac. Vila-Perdomo and Isaac remain in custody in Miami-Dade.
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Manuel Marin's son, Yaddiel Marin, was arrested last year after he was accused of helping his father while he was on the run, authorities said. Yaddiel Marin owns and operates many of the supermarkets once operated by his father.
"This was a Lifetime movie in real life. The only difference here is that people were really getting hurt, people really died. People really bled and really were tortured," Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said after the arrests last year.
Presidente has been one of the fastest-growing Hispanic grocery chains in the country.
