{"id":60907,"date":"2026-01-12T17:42:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=60907"},"modified":"2026-01-12T17:42:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:42:47","slug":"florida-sex-money-murder-gang-leader-faces-5-life-sentences-after-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/12\/florida-sex-money-murder-gang-leader-faces-5-life-sentences-after-conviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida \u2018Sex, Money, Murder\u2019 gang leader faces 5 life sentences after conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Florida law enforcement officials held a news conference Monday on an investigation that dates back to 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Attorney General James Uthmeier, and representatives from<br>the Statewide Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Department of Corrections, and the Florida Gang Investigators Association discussed the&nbsp;\u201cSex, Money, Murder\u201d gang racketeering investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On April 13, 2022, officials announced that a statewide, year-long investigation into the \u201cSex, Money, Murder\u201d gang led to over 160 charges against 41 suspects, including racketeering charges with gang enhancements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"News conference: Conviction of Sex Money Murder gang leader Hernando Thompson (Jan 12, 2026)\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AoCnGevZVoo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Law enforcement seized over $1.5 million worth of drugs, 18 firearms and $17,514 in cash during the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a 2022 news conference, FDLE Special Agent in Charge Mark Brutnell said the gang operates across the country and \u201chas been a thorn in the side of central Florida community for years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, the officials highlighted how cooperation between agencies and Florida\u2019s \u201claw and order\u201d policies made the arrests possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cThe conviction of gang leader Hernando Thompson is perfect example of Florida\u2019s tough-on-crime criminal justice system at work,\u201d&nbsp;said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. \u201cWe hope to see him sentenced to life in prison for his orchestration of violent criminal gang activities.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"7c6a5d\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7c6a5d;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"277\" height=\"345\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-12T174007.187.webp?resize=277%2C345&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60908 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-12T174007.187.webp?w=277&amp;ssl=1 277w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-12T174007.187.webp?resize=241%2C300&amp;ssl=1 241w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Uthmeier said Thompson, 36, the gang\u2019s leader in Florida, is now facing five consecutive life sentences in Florida prison after his Office of Statewide Prosecution secured a conviction. He was found guilty in Polk County court on all five charges: racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and three counts of directing criminal gang activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thompson is due to be sentenced on February 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida law enforcement officials held a news conference Monday on an investigation that dates back to 2021. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Attorney General James Uthmeier, and representatives fromthe Statewide&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wMS0xMlQxNzQwMDcuMTg3LndlYnA_Zml0PTI3NyUyQzM0NSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgXHUyMDE4U2V4LCBNb25leSwgTXVyZGVyXHUyMDE5IGdhbmcgbGVhZGVyIGZhY2VzIDUgbGlmZSBzZW50ZW5jZXMgYWZ0ZXIgY29udmljdGlvbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.ToFHK7V93Gi399o8npxKT9cjmsv08ZhR7paVmGC5pGoMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":60908,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-12T174007.187.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13165,1542,13166],"class_list":["post-60907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-florida-sex","tag-money","tag-murder-gang-leader-faces-5-life-sentences-after-conviction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60909,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60907\/revisions\/60909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}