Days after his arrest in Honduras, a former New Jersey pastor who fled the country following his conviction for molesting a 13-year-old boy has been returned to the United States to face punishment.

Gregorio Martinez was being held Monday in a detention center in Miami, said Nikki Credic, a spokeswoman for the US Marshals Service in Washington D.C. Martinez, 48, was escorted to Florida by marshals on Saturday, Credic said.

Gregorio Martinez is taken into custody in Danli, Honduras, by the Honduran National Police. Martinez, convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy in New Jersey, is now back on U.S. soil to face punishment. (Courtesy Honduran National Police)

It was not immediately clear if U.S. authorities made an official request for extradition or if officials in Honduras voluntarily offered up Martinez, a Dominican who has been criminally charged with sexually assaulting three additional teenagers in Hudson County and who has been accused of molesting another boy in Nicaragua.

NJ Advance Media reported in May the former Jersey City resident had been in hiding in Esteli, Nicaragua, until earlier this year.

Credic said the marshals service's International Investigations Branch, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office and the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security investigated information that led them to believe Martinez was in Honduras.

The federal agencies then "worked with Honduras law enforcement officials to establish surveillance in the town of Danli, Honduras, which led to Martinez's arrest," Credic said.

Martinez was detained in Danli Tuesday night, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office announced Sunday, adding that investigators had traced him by following a "money trail."

Prosecutor Esther Suarez, through a spokesman, confirmed Monday Martinez was in the United States but declined further comment.

In her statement Sunday, Suarez said it was her intention to bring Martinez back to New Jersey to be sentenced and to stand trial on the pending sex assault counts. The timetable for his return to the Garden State was not immediately clear.

He faces up to five years in prison on the charges for which he was convicted: aggravated criminal sexual contact, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He may also face charges because he fled the country while awaiting sentencing.

Martinez's 13-year-old victim, his three alleged victims in New Jersey and his accuser in Nicaragua all came to know him through evangelical Pentecostal churches where he preached. Martinez was most recently associated with the Assembles of God, the world's largest Pentecostal denomination.

NJ Advance Media found Martinez had been living in an Assemblies of God church compound in Esteli, about 85 miles south of Danli, Honduras, until February. Authorities brought a renewed focus to the criminal investigation after the news organization reported on Martinez's whereabouts.

On Monday, relief rippled through church communities in Hudson County as people learned of Martinez's arrest.

"This is great," said Wilson Melendez, a former Jersey City pastor who was instrumental in getting Martinez's preaching license revoked by another Pentecostal denomination in 2011 after a teenage boy accused Martinez of groping him. Criminal charges were never brought in that case.

"I'm glad they caught him and brought him back because he won't be able to cause any more damage to kids," Melendez said, adding that he has been inundated by calls from people at multiple churches since news of the arrest.

Martinez was convicted of molesting the 13-year-old boy in February of last year. He also is charged with sex crimes against three young men, all 19.

He was free on $250,000 bail when he vanished weeks after the conviction.

Staff writer Enrique Lavin contributed to this report.

Mark Mueller may be reached at mmueller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkJMueller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.