ACCUSED IN NICARAGUA BUS CASE TO STAND TRIAL

Guatemala, February 14, 2012. In the Nicaragua bus case, the First High-Risk Trial Court ordered that Marvin Montiel Marin (who also goes by the name Marvin Leonel Barrios), alias "El Taquero", be prosecuted for criminal association; conspiracy to obtain, store and traffic illegal substances; and 16 counts of murder.

Maynor Aroldo Gutiérrez was also prosecuted on the same charges. In the same case, Gutiérrez is also charged with the attempted murder of Francisco Concogua Martínez. The latter had he himself been charged on February 2 with the same counts as the other two individuals. Sara Elizabeth Cruz Mansilla, however, who shared the same abode as Montiel Marín, was prosecuted for criminal association.

Background
On November 8, 2008, Montiel Marín, a suspected drug trafficker in the Zacapa area, and a group of hired killers, intercepted a bus en route from Nicaragua carrying 16 passengers. They then took the bus to Marín's ranch in Rio Hondo. At the ranch, all the people travelling on the bus were murdered and then doused in gasoline and burned.