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Ariel Gandulla pleads guilty to kidnapping, will testify against Alexis Vila in murder trial

According to the Miami Herald MMA fighter Ariel Gandulla, 51, pled guilty to the 2011 kidnapping of Camilo Salazar in a Miami court last week and received a 36-month sentence. Gandulla’s plea and sentence are part of a deal that is contingent on Gandulla testifying against individuals charged with Salazar’s murder.

Gandulla was originally charged with second-degree murder in this case, alongside fellow fighter Alexis Vila-Perdomo (a former Bellator tournament finalist and Olympic wrestler), boxing coach and promoter Roberto Isaac, and supermarket magnate Manuel Marin.

When those charges came down, in April 2018, prosecutors in Miami-Dade county claimed Marin, who owns the Presidente line of grocery stores, hired Gandulla, Vila-Perdomo and Isaac to kidnap and kill Salazar, whom he believed was having an affair with his wife.