Police reports detailed that the assumptions, members of the Mara Salvatrucha, followed Joseph Estiven Martínez López, 34, to the Villa Nueva market.
According to the PNC, the alleged gang members were identified as Wagner Eduardo Orellana Cuyán, aka Chepe; José Eduardo Cortez; Rafael Edgardo Gaitán Martínez and Nelson Javier Carrillo Samaley, who went aboard a gray car with P-13HZS plates and carried three weapons illegally.
Police said he investigated two hypotheses about the armed attack, in which Martínez López was injured.
The first hypothesis links Martínez López as a possible money lender in the sector and the direct attack could be related to its operations.
The second line of research is an attack against Martínez for refusing to pay extortion.
“Martínez López possibly owns heavy transport vehicles and the Mara Salvatrucha gang (MS-13) had demanded a weekly or monthly fee not to attempt against his life. When the carrier refused, the hitmen tried to kill him, ”said the PNC.
Police said that Martínez’s bodyguards repelled the armed attack and injured two gang members, while the other two were arrested and transferred to the town’s court.
The police report said the escorts carried three .223 and three guns, all weapons were legal.
Attacks in Villa Nueva
The PNC reported that armed attacks in Villa Nueva have been generated by a struggle among gang members of the 18th neighborhood and Mara Salvatrucha, to expand their operations related to the collection of extortion and narcomenudeo.
The Prosecutor’s Office against Extortions of the Public Ministry (MP) indicated that it investigates several clicks of the MS-13 for being involved in the collection of extortion and that their operations have increased during the last year.
Another gang in Guatemala
The MP announced that the gang called Los Waifens has expanded its criminal operations in San Pedro Ayampuc and San Juan Sacatepéquez, Guatemala.
“It has grown, because there was already a third movement of the gangs. It is a criminal structure that exists next to the gang of neighborhood 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, ”said Edgar Morales, from the Prosecutor’s Office against MP extortion.
He added that the Waifens emerged in 2005 and there was a small group operating in Carranza, San Juan Sacatepéquez, but during the last months they have identified that the gang has extended its operations to San Pedro Ayampuc, where they have moved former members of a criminal structure of El Salvador called “revolutionaries”.
“They have been brewing the collection of extortion and murders. We have information regarding their way of operating and who integrate it,” he argued.
Morales said the investigations have shown that, derived from the policies implemented by the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, a structure arose to which it was called revolutionaries and these criminals can be operating with the Waifens.
These criminals are attributed to the collection of extortion to the extra -urban bus pilots of short routes, ranging from San Pedro Ayampuc to the capital city.
In 2024 the pilots decided to stop working three times to demonstrate their disagreement for little security in the municipality.