During the afternoon of last Wednesday, July 29, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of El Salvador obtained sentences of up to 1 thousand 48 years in prison against 28 members of the criminal structure called The Guilddedicated to trafficking drugsmoney laundering and illicit groups in Saint Annedepartment located in the west.
According to what was stated in the investigations of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of El Salvador, between November 2023 and November 2024this network of The Guild operated in the Salvadoran department of Santa Ana, where it sold cocaine through messaging applications to receive orders practically throughout the country. country.
Faced with this scenario, the Second Court Against Organized Crime of the Salvadoran department of Saint Anne imposed convictions for more than 81 cases of drug trafficking and more than twelve cases of proposition and conspiracy to commit these crimes to the main ringleaders of The Guild in the territory from El Salvador.
- Miguel Ángel Mazariego Martínez: 1 thousand 48 years in prison
- Leopoldo Ernesto Ramírez Godoy: 1 thousand 48 years in prison
- René Ernesto Martínez Salgado: 1 thousand 38 years in prison
What is El Gremio in El Salvador?
According to LatinUSdigital news and multimedia content platform, El Gremio is a criminal structure dedicated to drug trafficking in El Salvador, whose leaders received convictions of more than a thousand years in prison, issued by the Second Court Against Organized Crime of the Salvadoran department of Santa Ana.
Given the circumstances, these sentences were handed down in the context of the war anti-gang of the Salvadoran president Nayib Bukelestarted in 2022during which more than 90 thousand gang memberswho remain held in maximum security prisons, such as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
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However, the Attorney General’s Office of El Salvador did not detail whether the case of the three leaders of El Gremio is part of the trials collectives under the emergency regime that protects the offensive against these criminal structures, since Congress approved in March a constitutional reform that eliminated the maximum penalty 60 years in prison.
Faced with this situation, the Salvadoran president modified the Penal Code of El Salvador and established the life imprisonment for murderers, rapists and terroristswho are being held in a maximum security megaprison located in the municipality of Tecolucadesigned to house up to 40,000 highly dangerous gang members.
Bukele’s anti-gang war
According to the news agency EFEthe war against gangs in El Salvador is a strategy of massive security initiated in March 2022 by the government of Nayib Bukele, whose key points include an extended emergency regime, more than 90 thousand arrests and a drastic reduction of homicides in the country.
However, various reports from international organizations denounce arbitrary arrests, overcrowdingthousands of releases of innocent people and deaths in state custody, despite the decrease in the homicide rate, which has positioned the country among those with the lowest homicide rates. violence and has strengthened support for Nayib Bukele.
#CombateAPganillas | The @FGR_SV obtained sentences of up to 1,048 years in prison against 28 members of the criminal structure called El Gremio, dedicated to drug trafficking, money laundering and illicit groups in Santa Ana.
According to research, among… pic.twitter.com/GEVk09s4xf
— Attorney General’s Office of the Republic El Salvador (@FGR_SV) July 29, 2026
