Raid in El Salvador exposes inner workings of brutal gang

SAN SALVADOR — The raids began before dawn. A thousand police fanned out across El Salvador’s wrinkled landscape, busting down doors at used-car lots, intercepting cross-country buses and surprising customers at a drive-in motel called the Three Aces. Authorities seized dozens of businesses, claiming they belonged to the Mara Salvatrucha, the country’s largest gang.

In an extensive operation Thursday that resulted in 77 arrests, 106 seized vehicles and 34 frozen bank accounts, the Salvadoran government targeted the financial holdings of the gang, exposing the enrichment of its leaders and sending a message to the impoverished rank and file. “You should know that your leaders are living differently from the rest of you,” said Douglas Meléndez, the attorney general.

Among those captured in “Operation Check” was Marvin Ramos Quintanilla, an evangelical pastor who authorities say was leading a double life, working as the gang’s treasurer and using his religious credentials to enter prisons and coordinate homicides, extortion and money-laundering operations with gang members.

The financial activity of El Salvador’s three main gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, and two factions of Barrio 18, has long been murky. Reliable information is scarce. In the past, governments have tried to weaken the gangs — which have around 70,000 members in El Salvador but extend well beyond its borders — by cracking down in the streets and in the prisons.

“This is the first effort to follow the money,” said Alex Segovia, an economist and onetime adviser to former president Mauricio Funes, who left office in 2014. “With this investigation, the government has recognized that the gang is a criminal business with the potential to accumulate capital.”

Salvadoran investigators focused first on the income that Mara Salvatrucha gets through extortion, and then turned to a network of businesses allegedly used to launder the money: used-car dealerships, drive-in motels, brothels, two major urban bus companies, dozens of pirated taxis, restaurants, bars, and a fruit and vegetable stand. Some of the accused have business connections in the United States, where the Mara Salvatrucha has a strong presence in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

According to the attorney general, the targeted Salvadoran businesses are run by a small group of gang leaders called “the Federation,” who in recent years have withdrawn from direct involvement in traditional criminal activity and devoted themselves instead to managing the gang’s finances. “While the rest of gang members are getting killed and getting locked up, their leaders are living in fancy houses, driving luxury vehicles and sending their kids to private schools,” Mr. Meléndez said.

Some analysts said the authorities were emphasizing the difference in income between gang leaders and their followers in an effort to sow dissension.

That strategy may not be effective. “When it comes to organized crime, there’s a misguided belief on the part of authorities that by cutting off the monster’s head, the problem will be solved,” said José Miguel Cruz, a political scientist. “But when you take out the leaders, you create space for others” to take their place.

“This is the first effort to follow the money.” — Alex Segovia, an economist and onetime adviser to former president Mauricio Funes, who left office in 2014