A government report today highlights the arrest of 109 members of the Barrio18 Revolucionarios gang in El Salvador.

San Salvador.- The Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro indicated in a report that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) together with the National Civil Police (PNC) made the capture in the department of Santa Ana, as part of “Operation Lake”.

In his message on his X account, Villatoro said that among those arrested were four palabreros, four of the so-called “homeboys” in charge of neighborhoods or cantons, and 16 collaborators, all of whom have criminal records for crimes committed from 2014 to 2018, including six homicides.

The terrorists, as defined by law, will be charged with the crimes of aggravated homicide and illicit groupings.“We are going to put an end to this cancer that for decades took root in our society and we will hold all these murderers accountable before the law”, the minister asserted.

Under the exception regime, Salvadoran authorities sent nearly 74,000 alleged gang members and collaborators behind bars, a small number of whom were acquitted because they could not prove their links to the gangs. (PL)