FUGITIVE FIGHTS TO STAY IN CANADA
Ariel Gandulla alleged to have participated in gruesome 2011 killing in Miami area
Former MMA fighter living with his family in B.C. faces murder charge in Miami
A former mixed martial arts fighter believed to be hiding from U.S. authorities after a gruesome Miami-area slaying is living with his family in B.C. while his immigration status is under review.
Ariel Gandulla is alleged to be one of four men who participated in the vicious killing in 2011 of Camilo Salazar, whose body was found mutilated and charred on a dirt road in South Florida. Salazar’s hands were tied behind his back, his throat was slit and his pelvic area was burned.
U.S. prosecutors have been aware that Gandulla is in Canada and now court documents, local speeding tickets and other relevant files have revealed that the 50-year-old fugitive is living in the Vancouver area with his wife Kelly and three children.
Last month, prosecutors filed an arrest warrant for four suspects in Salazar’s death. Gandulla is facing charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder. Roberto Isaac and Alexis Vila have pleaded not guilty and remain in jail in Miami. Manuel Marin, who investigators say orchestrated the hit, is believed to be hiding in Spain.
Marin, a Miami grocery chain owner, is alleged to have recruited Gandulla and others to kill Salazar, whom detectives later learned was having an affair with Marin’s wife. Cellphone evidence detailed in the warrant show Gandulla was in constant communication with Marin and other suspects the day Salazar was kidnapped, while phone records pinpointed his location to cell towers close to the victim’s home. Gandulla’s fingerprint was also found on Salazar’s truck.
Gandulla first came to Canada in June 2012 as a Cuban national with permanent residency in the U.S. His wife — reached Wednesday at the Burnaby hair salon where she works — declined to speak about her husband’s case.
“I spoke to my lawyer and I’m going to let them do all the talking,” she said. Lawyer Peter Edelmann didn’t return repeated requests for comment. Vancouver police also didn’t return requests for comment. The Miami-Dade Police Department would only say there is an active arrest warrant for Gandulla.
Little is known about Gandulla’s life in B.C. outside of his involvement with MMA. The 5-foot-11 middleweight lost a trio of fights in Victoria, Fort St. John and Richmond between November 2012 and March 2015, according to MMA websites. During that time, he trained at Franco Kickboxing/Pankration on Fraser Street, where he was known as a quiet family man who loved judo and Muay Thai, owner Chris Franco said Wednesday.
Franco said he was left “disheartened” after a friend texted him a clip from a news article earlier this week describing the allegations. After 18 years of running his dojo, which has trained thousands, hearing that a former student may have been linked to such a heinous crime came as a shock, Franco said.
The two men first met in Sep- tember 2012, when Gandulla approached Franco about training and competing.
There was no way Franco could have known about the fighter’s history in Miami, he said.
“He came to me in 2012 saying that, you know, he wanted to change his life and all this stuff,” Franco said. “He wants to kind of ... find a better environment for his family.”
Franco said Gandulla struggled with English and his conversations with Franco and other students were usually brief. But during their time training, Franco heard about Gandulla’s work as a welder, his efforts to gain Canadian citizenship and his close relationship with his family, who would sometimes come to the dojo to watch him train.
Gandulla did a trio of months-long training “camps” with Franco ahead of his events. After Gandulla’s final defeat in 2015, Franco suggested the aging fighter consider retiring and instead spend more time with his family.
“After that, he trained sporadically — once every two, three months,” Franco said.
The men didn’t speak much after the last fight, Franco said. Gandulla last came to the gym five or six
months ago for a Saturday boxing class, but hasn’t returned since.
“He was very soft-spoken — like he was not a very loud person. He was quiet, to himself,” Franco said.
Franco said he will wait for the U.S. courts to pass judgment, but in the meantime he wants nothing to do with Gandulla, who he feels had been deceitful. Had Franco known anything about Gandulla’s life in Miami, he would never have been allowed to train at his dojo, which has a strict anti-gang policy.
“I have my seven-year-old daughter who trains here and the last thing I would want to do is have someone with that kind of history of violence training in my place,” he said.
A federal court case heard at Vancouver in October 2017 details multiple efforts by Gandulla’s family to
obtain permanent-residence status in Canada, dating back to 2014.
The documents also outline Gandulla’s previous criminal activity, which include allegations of involvement with the violent Latin Kings street gang, as well as charges of battery on law enforcement, marijuana-related offences and a conviction for cocaine possession. Gandulla fled to Canada before he was taken to trial for those charges.
In December 2014, the family’s applications for a refugee claim and permanent resident status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds were denied. Their second attempt, in September 2015, was also unsuccessful.
Canada wasn’t able to remove Gandulla to either Cuba or the U.S. as neither country would authorize
his re-entry. Currently, the family’s application for residency under humanitarian and compassionate grounds has been granted a judicial review to be looked at by a different immigration officer.
Meanwhile, extradition to the U.S. remains in limbo. In a video taken from a courtroom by the Miami Herald in late April, Miami-Dade prosecutor Gail Levine explained to the judge that the U.S. hadn’t yet filed for extradition.
“At this time, the federal government is not willing to let us bring him here because he’s a Cuban national,” she said.
“But you do know where he is?” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Martin Zilber interrupted to ask.
The prosecutor goes on to say that Gandulla’s location was discovered
on his Facebook page, which has since been deleted. Levine explained that because Gandulla doesn’t have American citizenship, U.S. Homeland Security hasn’t filed for his extradition based on uncertainty over his status during and after trial.
Poor diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba makes deportation difficult even with people convicted of crimes.
“If the defendant is found not guilty, the question then becomes what does he do. If he was an Italian national, we would send him back to Italy,” Levine said. “We can’t send this man back to Cuba.”
“At this time, the federal government is not willing to let us bring him here because he’s a Cuban national.” — Gail Levine