The Human Trafficking Prosecutor’s Office, through the Unit against Criminal Structures and Special Cases, in coordination with the Regional Prosecutor and the support of the National Civil Police, carried out 32 raids as part of the operation «Adolescents in Danger».

This operation was carried out as a follow-up to the investigation related to the recruitment of minors for organized criminal groups.

As a result, nine guards of the General Directorate of the Penitentiary System were apprehended, who, according to the investigation, have collaborated with the Barrio 18 criminal structure for the entry of girls and adolescents into prisons.

Also, the arrest of 11 individuals identified as those who capture, receive and transfer the victims. In addition, the notification of arrest warrants for eight persons deprived of their liberty and the seizure of various evidence, including several electronic devices that will strengthen the ongoing investigation.

The arrest warrants were issued by the Criminal Court of First Instance Specialized in Crimes of Human Trafficking, for the crimes of human trafficking in the form of recruitment of minors for organized groups, mistreatment of minors, rape, sexual assault and homicide.

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, conducted a search in the prisons located in zone 18 of Guatemala City and in the municipality of Fraijanes.

Investigation

During the investigations, the specialized unit documented the entry of minors between the ages of 12 and 16 into prisons, where they are sexually abused and recruited with the aim of integrating them into the Barrio 18 gang and its different cliques.

The investigation identified the way in which the criminal structure operates to recruit girls and adolescents and force them to join the different cliques of the Barrio 18 gang.

This consists of recruiting them through social networks, instant messaging applications, human networks, institutes or study centers, among others, which are the first contact between girls and adolescents and gang members.

They are then transported by means of Uber, InDrive, motorcycle cabs, collective and extra-urban buses, which are paid for by gang members or with money from the girls and adolescents that they have in their possession or manage to extract from their parents.

Subsequently, they are received in the residences of members or collaborators of the youth gangs or in abandoned buildings, in which there is no control by adults or responsible persons.

In these places, they receive instructions from gang members regarding the crimes they must commit or visits to prisons, as well as drinking alcoholic beverages or using narcotics.

Finally, girls and adolescents are held by death threats, deception or violence during their time of adaptation to the gangs, since the places where they are held are guarded by gang members.

March 20, 2023