Some 1,000 PNC officers, cooperating with the attorney general’s office, carried out a massive operation on 8 and 9 September, apparently planned for more than two years, in Santa Ana, El Salvador’s second largest city located in the west of the country. The PNC conducted more than 180 raids in Santa Ana during which 99 arrests were made, and some US$40,000 in cash confiscated, along with 75 cars, five motorcycles, and 15 firearms.
The majority of those arrested were maras, but 40 local business owners were also detained, accused of receiving cash from MS13 and later returning a profit on this “investment” to the gang, according to the PNC director, Howard Cotto. The authorities believe that some US$1.9m was laundered by two MS13 cells led by César ‘Greñas’ Larios, who was deported to El Salvador from the US in July this year.
On 12 September, a special tribunal in the capital San Salvador ordered 26 members of the MS13 money-laundering network to be placed under preventive detention because of imminent flight risk.
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