U.S. authorities identified the individual who was wanted by federal justice and was captured on Thursday in Hialeah, following two consecutive days of police incidents that kept several agencies in South Florida on high alert.
It concerns Yam Brandy Perera Núñez, a 41-year-old Cuban with a long criminal record that began in 2003 and includes charges of grand theft, resisting arrest, burglary, and drug trafficking.
According to NBC Miami, he was once detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and he was also arrested last year in Tampa.
Additionally, police sources cited by Univision 23 Miami revealed that he was deported in September 2025 and that he re-entered the country illegally, a crime for which a federal court document listed him as a wanted fugitive.
"In June 2025, the sheriff of Desoto County, Florida, arrested Yam Brandy Perera Núñez for the theft of a forklift valued at nearly $100,000. At the time, he was classified as a criminal with a history of serious offenses," specified Univision 23.
The operation on Thursday ended at the intersection of West 68th Street and 12th Avenue, culminating in a dramatic arrest involving more than twenty officers.
A video shared on Instagram by the user onlyindade shows a heavy police presence surrounding the individual, who attempted to escape one last time before being subdued with a Taser. Witnesses reported that when he was handcuffed, he appeared to have a bleeding nose and looked dazed.
The sequence of events began on Wednesday when agents from the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) attempted to stop a white Dodge pickup truck with a trailer traveling south on Okeechobee Road, near Pembroke Road.
The driver refused to stop, which triggered a vehicle chase that ended when the suspect abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot in the area of Northwest 137th Avenue and Northwest 178th Street, in the northwest of Miami-Dade County.
A police helicopter flew over the area, ground blockades were set up, and a K-9 unit was deployed, but the fugitive managed to escape that day.
Perera Núñez is now facing charges that include aggravated escape and evasion, aggravated assault, serious injuries, violent resistance, and grand theft.
The operation involved the FHP, the Hialeah Police, and agents from the Department of Homeland Security, and the road closures impacted residents for several hours.
Filed under: