The Prosecutor’s Office against Human Trafficking, under the direction of the Regional Prosecutor and in coordination with its regional prosecutorial. agencies, developed the «Pretoria» operation in its phase number five.

A total of seven investigations, inspection, search and seizure of evidence were carried out with the accompaniment of the National Civil Police on September 22 and 23, in buildings located in the departments of Huehuetenango, Retalhuleu, Escuintla, Zacapa and Baja Verapaz.

As a result, the following seizures were coordinated for the crime of possession of pornographic material of minors.

Alberto Recinos Recinos, in Huehuetenango; Luis Alberto Santos Martínez, in Retalhuleu; Jancel Gustavo Lopez Juarez, in Baja Verapaz; José Alexander Culajay, in La Democracia, and Edy de Jesús Muñoz Moreno, in San José, department of Escuintla.

Background

The investigation of this case in Guatemala began after a complaint received after an operation carried out in Pretoria, South Africa, in which it was possible to obtain information about a group within a social network in which material with child sexual abuse was shared online and the participation of people from Guatemala was established.

From that account, in Guatemalan territory the first phase took place on September 2, 2021, the second on February 25, 2022, the third on September 29 of the same year and the fourth on June 24 of this year.