‘They will pay’: Bare-chested tattooed gang members are forced to kneel in handcuffs while being paraded in El Salvador street as president vows criminals will ‘get what’s coming to them’ after three cops were shot dead in cold blood

• Authorities say the trio were part of the feared Barrio 18 Sureños, one of three main gangs in the country
• The alleged gang members were hauled onto a dirt road in the ‘La Realidad’ neighbourhood of Santa Ana
• Their arrests come just days after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele pledged to ‘intensify’ war on gangs
• He made the announcements on Tuesday, when three police officers were ambushed and gunned down
• El Salvador has one of the world’s highest murder rates and is racked with warring gangs and violent crime 

Dramatic images have emerged of the moment three gang members suspected of killing police officers were dragged into the street and paraded in front of the country’s press.

Authorities say the trio were part of the feared Barrio 18 Sureños (18-Sur), one of three main gangs operating in the small Central American country which has one of the world’s highest murder rates. 

The alleged gang members were hauled onto a dirt road in the ‘La Realidad’ neighbourhood of Santa Ana by a huge unit of armed police officers who stormed a nearby building and arrested them.

They were then forced to kneel with their hands in cuffs as law enforcement posed for photos with the media. 

Two of the individuals, a young woman and seemingly teenage boy, looked on uncomfortably and lowered their heads in an attempt to conceal their faces from the camera flashes.

But one man, sporting a bare torso and what looked to be a large wound or scar across his cheek, stared unflinchingly at the media with a menacing scowl etched across his tattoo-covered face.

The arrests come just days after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele pledged earlier this week to ‘intensify’ his government’s already tough efforts to combat rampant gang violence after three police officers were gunned down on Tuesday.

Alleged members of the Barrio 18 Sureños gang look on while presented by security authorities to the press in the ‘La Realidad’ neighborhood

The Salvadoran government captured three supposed 18-Sur gang members after the killing of three police officers on June 28

The alleged gang members were hauled onto a dirt road in the ‘La Realidad’ neighbourhood of Santa Ana by a huge unit of armed police officers who stormed a nearby building and arrested them

Armed police officers involved in the capture of three alleged 18-Sur gang members in the ‘La Realidad’ neighbourhood look on as the detainees are shoved in front of the media’s cameras

One of the detainees had a tattoo of the number 18, symbolic of the 18-Sur gang, emblazoned across his chest

Two of the alleged gang members look dejected as they are hauled on front of the media, while the tattooed individual looks menacingly at the cameras

An alleged gang member is presented to the press after being accused by authorities of participating in the murder of three police officers, in Santa Ana, El Salvador, on June 30, 2022

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele pledged earlier this week to ‘intensify’ his government’s already tough efforts to combat rampant gang violence after three police officers were gunned down on Tuesday

The president’s announcement on Tuesday raises the stakes even higher after the government declared a state of emergency in March, when 62 people were killed in one day as a result of gang violence.

‘What is coming to (gang members) is much greater, and they are going to pay dearly for having taken the lives of these three heroes,’ Bukele told a rare news conference.

He said the officers who were killed earlier this week had been ‘ambushed’ by members of the 18-Sur gang and gunned down in cold blood. 

Bukele did not specify how he would intensify what he calls a ‘war on gangs’ beyond a larger police presence across the Central American country, but official data suggests more than 43,000 people have already been arrested in connection with gang activity in the three months since the state of emergency began. 

The president’s supporters say this is evidence that the government and law enforcement is committed to reducing gang crime and cracking down on violence in the streets, while critics argue the heightened police activity and restriction of freedoms under the state of emergency simply denies detainees a fair legal process.

Under the state of exception, which the government voted to extend on Tuesday, the time people can be held without seeing a judge was increased to 15 days from 72 hours. 

They also do not have to be informed of why they are being arrested or given the right to speak with a lawyer, and authorities can tap phones without a judge’s order. 

Quotas imposed by police superiors have led to mass detentions and the arrest of innocent people according to activists, while groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Cristosal have also questioned the president’s ruthless campaign.

Police officers carry the coffin of fellow officer Carlos Velasquez, who was killed with two other fellow officers by alleged gang members during a patrol on Tuesday

Relatives of police officer Marta Lisseth Alas, who was killed with two other fellow officers by alleged gang members during a patrol, stand by her coffin during her funeral, in Tacuba, El Salvador, June 30, 2022

Relatives of the slain police officers console one another during funeral services yesterday

A combative Bukele shrugged off the criticism in Tuesday’s press conference.

‘Let them complain all they want. 

‘We are going to defend our people and we are going to ensure that the lives of these agents were not lost in vain,’ he said, before adding construction had begun on a huge new prison to house criminals arrested in connection with gang activity. 

On Tuesday, Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro said that authorities were winning the war against the gangs, but there was more work to do. 

‘The mission that Salvadorans are giving us is clear, eradicate these terrorists from Salvadoran territory,’ he said.

Bukele’s approval ratings have remained high and the measures have been popular among a population tired of living in constant fear of the gangs.

Far from a localised criminal organisation, Barrio-18 is a transnational conglomerate of gang factions which operates throughout North, Central and South America.

Barrio-18 had an estimated 50,000 members across 20 US states in 2017, but has since expanded to become a terrifying force throughout North and Central America.  

Police frisk a man during an operation to find those responsible for the murder of three police officers, in Santa Ana, El Salvador, on June 30, 2022

Soldiers carry out an operation to find those responsible for the murder of three police officers, in Santa Ana, El Salvador

Barrio-18 had an estimated 50,000 members across 20 US states in 2017, but has since expanded to become a terrifying force throughout North and Central America

Barrio-18 members are expected to get inked with tattoos denoting a range of messages. Well-known gang tattoos include: 18, XVIII, XV3, BEST (for ‘Barrio Eighteenth Street’) and 8P – a mark of killing a police officer

Barrio-18 cliques have been linked to the international drugs trade, prostitution, extortion and various other criminal activities, and the gang is closely allied with the Mexican Mafia

The gang was formed in downtown Los Angeles in the 1960s, but rapidly gained ground as gang members looked to recruit teenagers and vulnerable people south of the border.

As the gang’s ranks grew, it became the target of FBI and police crackdowns which saw many of its veteran members sent to prison.

But time behind bars merely gave Barrio-18’s shot-callers a fertile new recruiting ground, and it quickly swelled its ranks in federal prisons.

Stepped up deportations also had an unintended effect, spreading the gang’s reach to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras as hardened members were shipped back to their native countries.

Barrio-18 cliques have been linked to the international drugs trade, prostitution, extortion and various other criminal activities, and the gang is closely allied with the Mexican Mafia.

Their blue and black colours even pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia: blue for the allied gang, and black for Barrio-18’s original colour.

Barrio-18 members are expected to get inked with tattoos denoting a range of messages. 

Well-known gang tattoos include: 18, XVIII, XV3, BEST (for ‘Barrio Eighteenth Street’) and 8P – a mark of killing a police officer.

Source: Read Full Article