AUTHORITIES DISMANTLE GROUP OF EXTORTIONISTS

Guatemala, March 8, 2013. Today, the National Civil Police (PNC), along with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), arrested 16 suspected extortionists who operated in Canalitos (Zone 24). The extortionists in question allegedly form part of the Piwis Locos clique of the Mara Salvatrucha.

Authorities conducted 27 searches in Canalitos, seizing two firearms and cell phones. The following people were arrested on charges of criminal association, conspiracy to murder, murder and impeding the clarification of events:

1. Claudia Marisol Rodríguez Muñoz
2. María Leticia González López
3. Brayan Alexander Pec
4. Kevin Eduardo Gramajo Solórzano
5. Marcos Silvestre Rivera Flores
6. Flor de María Véliz
7. María Alberta Bantes Rodríguez
8. Lilian Yaneth Muralles
9. Reina Corina Hernández Rodríguez
10. Ricardo Amílcar Polio Rodríguez
11. Nancy Victoria Chinchilla
12. Hilda Jeanethe Rodríguez Muñoz
13. Erohel Armando Rodríguez Díaz
14. Mynor José Corzo
15. Nancy Nohemí López
16. Jenifer Lucero Rivera

CICIG supported MP investigations in the case.

Background
The members of the Piwis Locos criminal organization, part of the Mara Salvatrucha, had operated in Canalitos (Zone 14, Guatemala City) since 2010. The structure was led by Nixon Bantes González (alias "el flaco"), who delegated the coordination of illegal actions to Milton Gustavo López Lucas (alias "el koki") after being transferred to maximum security prison Fraijanes II in 2012.  The latter was serving a sentence in maximum security prison El Boquerón, which is located in Cuilapa, Santa Rosa.

Telephone calls made from inside the prison were used to coordinate the actions taken on the outside, such as extortion, intimidation of traders and other individuals, drug sales and the recruitment of new gang members. In addition, orders were given to murder people who refused to pay extortion money, investigators, witnesses and people who wanted to leave the clique.