Attorney General Bill McCollum Press Release

June 25, 2010
Media Contact: Sandi Copes (850) 245-0150
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Broward County Gang Member Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

TALLAHASSEE, FL -- Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a Broward County gang member has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Ernesto Campos, 28, was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution in conjunction with the State Attorney’s Office for the 17th Judicial Circuit. The original charges were pursuant to indictments issued by the Eighteenth Statewide Grand Jury, which was requested by Attorney General McCollum as part of the state’s anti-gang strategy.

Campos was a leader of SUR-13, a violent street gang that has terrorized Palm Beach County through robberies, assaults, arson and other dangerous crimes. He pleaded guilty today to one count of criminal racketeering, one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering and one count of second-degree murder. He was immediately sentenced to 15 years in prison to be followed by 10 years of probation.

Campos and his co-defendants were arrested in December 2007. Of the 12 members arrested, eight have pled and four defendants are awaiting a trial date. The indictment and resulting plea agreement are the result of the cooperative effort of the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the State Attorney’s Offices of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Judicial Circuits, the Florida Department of Corrections, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among others.