Tackling criminal networks in El Salvador

Sarah Esther Maslin has the latest on El Salvador says a brutal gang laundered money through motels, brothels, taxis for the Washington Post.

“This is the first effort to follow the money,” said Alex Segovia, an economist and onetime adviser to former president Mauricio Funes, who left office in 2014. “With this investigation, the government has recognized that the gang is a criminal business with the potential to accumulate capital.”

Salvadoran investigators focused first on the income that Mara Salvatrucha gets through extortion, and then turned to a network of businesses allegedly used to launder the money: used-car dealerships, drive-in motels, brothels, two major urban bus companies, dozens of pirated taxis, restaurants, bars, and a fruit and vegetable stand. Some of the accused have business connections in the United States, where the Mara Salvatrucha has a strong presence in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The gang is also involved in small-scale drug and weapons trafficking, authorities said.

According to the attorney general, the targeted Salvadoran businesses are run by a small group of gang leaders called the Federation, who in recent years have withdrawn from direct involvement in traditional criminal activity and devoted themselves instead to managing the gang’s finances. “While the rest of gang members are getting killed and getting locked up, their leaders are living in fancy houses, driving luxury vehicles and sending their kids to private schools,” Meléndez said.

I've said in the past that the Salvadoran authorities could take a page from their Guatemalan counterparts by breaking down networks of criminal organizations. In the past, they seem to have arrested mostly foot soldiers. When they have arrested public officials or people who seem to have been at the top of the hierarchy, the cases have collapsed and the suspects have walked free. The recent arrests could signal a shift in the right direction. As Jose Miguel Cruz cautions, however, “Tomorrow we’ll see if the case is well-documented.”

In other news, former congressman Wilver Rivera Monge was sentenced to fifteen years for money laundering. Rivera laundered money for drug trafficker Jorge Ulloa Sibrián

The government is trying to demonstrate to its own people and the international community that it does not need a CICIES, even if a majority of Salvadorans want one.