A registered sex offender from Anaheim charged with kidnapping a 13-year-old Orange County girl and repeatedly raping her has been captured in Guatemala as part of a multi-jurisdictional effort, authorities announced Wednesday.

Brian Estuardo Verbena-Martinez, 34, was located and arrested last week, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

He is accused of driving next to the victim while she was walking in Westminster on Dec. 5, 2025, and asking her if she needed a ride. Verbena-Martinez is accused of becoming more and more aggressive until the girl got into his car.

Over the next several hours, Verbena-Martinez allegedly sexually assaulting her in multiple locations, including in several parking lots and his apartment while other children were home, before finally dropping the girl off at her friend’s home in Garden Grove, authorities said.

The effort to track him down involved the FBI, U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the Westminster and Anaheim police departments, and Guatemala’s Policia Nacional Civil/Transnational Anti-Gang Task Force.

Verbena-Martinez has been charged with one felony count of kidnapping to commit a sex offense, one felony count of forcible rape, one felony count of sexual penetration of child under 14 years of age by force, one felony count of forcible oral copulation with a minor under the age of 14 years old, and three felony counts of lewd act upon a child under 14.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted on all charges.

Verbena-Martinez is a registered sex offender after being convicted in 2019 in Los Angeles County of arranging to meet a minor with the intent to engage in sexual conduct, prosecutors said.

“The crimes alleged against Verbena-Martinez are beyond horrific and something the young victim in this case must tragically endure,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

“This is the third announcement of a fugitive returned to Orange County this year from countries including Mexico, Vietnam and Guatemala, based on the successful relationship with the FBI, our law enforcement partners in Orange County, our foreign counterparts and the U.S. Department of Justice. The FBI will continue to assist local police when fugitives flee the state of California to evade capture.”

Deputy District Attorney Tom Farnell of the DA’s Sexual Assault Unit is prosecuting the case.