Nine members of the Rueda del Barrio 18, including the ringleader Aldo Dupié Ochoa Mejía, alias “El Lobo”, were transferred during a high security operation from the Renovación 1 prison to a restricted area of the Canada Penal Farm, in Escuintla, where they will remain isolated, incommunicado and without visitors, the Ministry of the Interior reported this Monday, May 18.
Roberto Solórzano, Vice Minister of Security, assured that the movement is part of the strategy of the Ministry of the Interior and the Penitentiary System to regain control of prisons and reinforce measures against highly dangerous criminal structures.
“On the weekend, at midnight, we proceeded to transfer the top leaders of the Barrio 18 gang, including ‘El Lobo’, Aldo Dupié Ochoa Mejía, along with members of the Rueda del Barrio 18, to repurposed facilities within Granja Canada, in Escuintla,” declared Solórzano.
As explained, the operation was carried out by special forces of the Penitentiary System, with support from agents of the National Civil Police and the Guatemalan Army, due to the dangerous profile of the inmates.
The vice minister indicated that the area where they were held was modified with metal structures and electronic systems to keep those deprived of liberty under strict surveillance and isolation controls.
“There, both metal and electronic structures were made to be able to transport these people and have them properly isolated, controlled and isolated, as it should be,” he stated.
Solórzano explained that the nine prisoners remain under new security protocols and, for now, they do not have authorization to receive visits or orders.
“They are under new security schemes and protocols. At the moment they do not have visitors and are isolated. There are also strict controls on searches and spaces to keep them individually isolated,” he said.
He added that the spaces left empty in Renovation 1 will be used to relocate other inmates considered highly dangerous.
“The part that they left empty within the Renovation 1 area, especially the sheds and containers, we are taking advantage of for other highly dangerous people who will also be placed there,” he indicated.
The official assured that the Penitentiary System develops a process of classification and redistribution of inmates, according to their criminal profile and level of risk, as part of the actions to apply the Anti-Gang Law.
“We are relocating highly dangerous people to have them properly controlled. We have been working to comply with the Anti-Gang Law,” he said.
Last February, authorities of the Penitentiary System (SP) reported that they relocated several inmates, including Aldo Dupié Ochoa Mejía, alias “El Lobo”, to containers adapted as cells in the maximum security prison Renovación 1, who remained in those spaces with access to only one hour of sunlight a day.
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