The rivalry between members of Barrio 18 (B18) and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) ended on Sunday, March 24, in a bloodbath inside a cafeteria in the Santa Delfina neighborhood, in zone 2 of Villa Canales, Guatemala.
This Monday, March 25, the day the scene processing procedure ended, the authorities revealed details of the incident, which they attribute to a dispute over territory.
The first hypothesis of the authorities is that cliques of both structures fight for control of the territory for the retail sale of drugs and also the collection of extortions from merchants in the area.
The investigations show that this is not the first case that occurs in Villa Canales. There have been others, and the fight for territory is disputed by both criminal organizations.
In this case, the National Civil Police (PNC), in a rapid reaction following the incident was committed, arrested three alleged gang members from Barrio 18. They are Erick Estuardo Lara Sicay, 29 years old; Eric Joel Monterroso Acevedo, 28; and Allan Ernesto Fuentes Hernandez, 21.
These subjects, according to the Specialized Criminal Investigation Division (Deic) of the PNC, arrived at around 6:45 p.m. at 1st avenue and 2nd street, zone 2, Santa Delfina neighborhood, Villa Canales, where the cafeteria is located. The Twinsto execute three men.
Two of the three gang members 18 were wearing two black vests with the logos of the Public Ministry and the Deic; and they used them to commit the crime.
They entered the cafeteria and shot the three alleged Salvatrucha gang members with an AK-47 rifle and two 9 millimeter pistols.
After perpetrating the crime, they fled aboard a gray sedan with private license plates 693BLZ, which in the records of the Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT) appears permanently inactive. It is presumed stolen in 2019 in some area of Mixco and Guatemala City.
After receiving the complaint, the PNC activated a chase to apprehend the hitmen from Barrio 18. They managed to do so at kilometer 12 of the route that leads to the village of El Zapote, sector 11, Villa Canales.
The three subjects were placed at the disposal of a competent judge and are waiting to appear at the first statement hearing.
The three people shot dead are Luis Daniel Mérida Escobar, 30, originally from Amatitlán, Guatemala; Norman Rodolfo Cruz Lake, 33, of Villa Canales, and Selvin Regino Hernandez Andrade, 37, of Guatemala City.
Josué Orlando Calderas Gómez, 23, originally from Amatitlán, was injured in this event and was taken to the Roosevelt Hospital for a gunshot wound to the left arm.
The municipal prosecutor’s office of Villa Canales is investigating the incident, according to the MP’s information and press department. Prosecutors and criminal investigation technicians processed the scene, says spokesman Moisés Ortiz, adding that they located 65 pieces of evidence, many of them ballistic.
“Following these events, in coordination with the PNC, the arrest of Erick Joel Monterroso Acevedo, Alan Ernesto Fuentes Hernández and Erick Estuardo Lara Sicay was achieved, who were driving aboard a gray sedan-type vehicle, in which they were transporting a vest that pretended to be from the Public Ministry, a vest that pretended to be the Specialized Criminal Investigation Division of the National Civil Police, a rifle-type firearm and two pistols, the MP explained.
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