Nine prison guards who were captured last Wednesday for having alleged links with a criminal structure that recruits minors for prostitution in the country’s prisons were linked to criminal proceedings this Thursday, March 21, and benefited from house arrest, judicial sources reported.
It was the Criminal First Instance Judge with specialized jurisdiction in human trafficking crimes, Efraín Najarro, who decided to place under house arrest the agents who were detained during an operation by the security forces that was called “Adolescents in Danger” and that in total left 20 arrests and 8 notifications in prisons.
Najarro ruled that the nine guards of the Penitentiary System (SP) would face criminal proceedings for the crime of breach of duties and granted them alternative measures, including house arrest, appearing at the MP to place their fingerprint, arraignment and not paying bail.
Last Thursday, the Unit against Criminal Structures and Special Cases of the Prosecutor’s Office against Human Trafficking and the National Civil Police carried out 32 raids as part of the “Adolescents in Danger” operation, which was carried out in follow-up to the investigation related to the recruitment of minors for organized criminal groups.
“As a result, the arrest of nine guards from the General Directorate of the Penitentiary System was coordinated who, according to the investigation, have collaborated with the criminal structure of Barrio 18 to admit girls and adolescents to prison centers,” detailed the Prosecutor’s Office.
He added that the arrest of 11 individuals “identified as those who captured, received and transferred the victims” was also carried out.
In addition, arrest warrants were notified for eight prisoners and the seizure of various evidence, including several electronic devices that will strengthen the investigation being carried out.
“As part of the inter-institutional efforts to address this case, the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Civil Police and the General Directorate of the Penitentiary System, carried out a search in the prison facilities located in zone 18 of Guatemala City and in the municipality of Fraijanes,” said the MP.
Investigation
The MP reported that during the investigations the specialized unit documented the admission of minors between the ages of 12 and 16 to prisons, “in which they are sexually abused and recruited in order to join the Barrio 18 gang and its different cliques.” .
“In the investigation, the way the criminal structure operates was identified to capture girls and adolescents and force them to join the different cliques of the Barrio 18 Gang. This consists of capturing them through social networks, instant messaging applications , human networks, institutes or study centers, among others, which are the first contact between girls and adolescents with gang members,” he says.
He adds that they are then transported by means of collaborators’ vehicles Uber, InDrive, motorcycle taxis, collective and extra-urban buses, which are paid for by the gang members or with money from the girls and adolescents that they have in their possession or manage to extract from His parents.
“Subsequently, they are received in the residences of members or collaborators of youth gangs or in abandoned buildings, in which there is no control by adults or responsible persons,” added the investigating entity.
It indicates that in these places they receive instructions from gang members for the crimes they must commit or visits to prison centers that they must carry out, as well as drinking alcoholic beverages or using narcotics.
Finally, girls and adolescents are held back through death threats, deception or violence during their time of adaptation to the gangs, since the shelters are monitored by gang members.
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