MS-13 Leader Arrested in Nebraska

(GRAND ISLAND, Neb.) — Joint Task Force Vulcan partnerships between FBI Houston, FBI Omaha, Grand Island Police Department, CBP’s BORTAC team and the TRIDENT Task Force resulted in the capture of alleged MS-13 leader Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto (aka Fantasma) in Nebraska. Cuadra Soto reportedly led a Honduran assassination squad.

Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto was arrested in Grand Island, Nebraska, on Dec. 8, 2025, after being charged in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska, with illegal entry of an unlawfully present noncitizen.

The news release said Cuadra Soto is a Honduran national and allegedly was a leader in the MS-13 gang who was “part of a professional assassination squad for the criminal organization.”

According to a report from Fox News, Cuadra Soto is believed to have overseen “El Combo”, an MS-13 assination squad for the gang.

The affidavit states that Honduran authorities charged him in 2022 with firearms offenses connected to a quadruple homicide. Authorities suspect he played a role in the July 2022 killing of Said Lobo Bonilla, the son of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa. Bonilla and three other men were killed as they left a nightclub in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

Cuadra Soto, as well as the other two people who were also charged, allegedly paid $125,000 in bribes to government officials for their freedom. Cuadra Soto allegedly came to the U.S. illegally according to the DOJ.

The court documents indicate he was later released from custody, with the circumstances of his release not detailed in the U.S. filing.

U.S. authorities allege that Cuadra Soto entered the United States in 2022 by crossing from Mexico into Texas and later obtained a California drivers license.

Federal agents were able to track him to Grand Island, where he had taken up residence. He was arrested Monday without incident.

The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative aimed at dismantling drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and to protect communities from violent crime.