The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Gustavo Villatoro, has recently reported that countries such as Guatemala and Honduras have consulted about phase 5 of the Territorial Control Plan, called Extraction, which since the beginning of December 2022 has been carried out in Soyapango, in the Tutunichapa communities, and La Granjita, and that to date has left more than 1,000 gang members in custody.

“We are willing to work with any country that requests our assistance, with an emphasis, obviously, on our neighbors, because we cannot have a safe El Salvador with some level of incidence of these terrorist groups.”

Since the implementation of the war on the gangs in March 2022, the security forces have detained more than 61,500 gang members.

During this phase, police and military personnel use technology and intelligence information to enter specific locations solely to pursue the objectives. In this way, they have captured gang leaders in Soyapango who posed as evangelical pastors and various marijuana and cocaine distributors who had Tutunichapa as a criminal location.