El Salvadoran Barrio 18 Gang Members Arrested In Salvadoran Gang Hotspot Tapachula, Chiapas

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

Four alleged gang members, two of them Salvadoran, were arrested by Mexican anti-gang police in Tapachula, Chiapas, in southern Mexico. Recent arrests of Salvadoran gang members are a reminder of warnings by journalists and the government that their numbers are increasing in the region.

The men were arrested in the Palmeiras neighborhood around 10:00 a.m., after police encountered them on a patrol. The men attempted to flee, but were surrounded and captured. 

Police found they were carrying many small bags of marijuana in dealing bags. Underneath their shirts, two of the men had tattoos. One man had his gang allegiance "18" tattooed on his stomach, referring to Barrio 18, a mega gang from El Salvador, as well as his clique, or faction "Locos Sureños".

Two of the men are from El Salvador, and the other two are Mexican. The two Salvadorans men's names are Hanson Stanley N, 32 years old, alias "el Cufi"; Mauricio Alexander N, 18 years old, alias "el Sparky". The Mexicans are named Abimael N, alias "el Boker", 37 years old, and Denisse Uriel N, 21 years old, reported Diario del Sur.

Diario del Sur also reported that the State Attorney Generals office has charged them with crimes against health for simple possession of drugs for distribution and membership in a gang.

Authorities reported that their names have been sent to the Transnational Anti-gang Center (CAT) in El Salvador to check for a ficha roja (red mark), as well to the Mexican migration institution. 

Central American Gangs in Chiapas

Central American gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio 18 built a foothold in Southern Mexico in the late 1990s, but have reemerged in the last five years.

A report by Heraldo de Chiapas found that MS-13 has been involved in the state since 1996, albeit on a small scale, mostly limited to extortion of migrants. Their numbers gradually increased, bringing violence with them. In 2004 however, the Mexican government deployed hundreds of police to round up the easily distinguishable tattooed gang members. For a decade, they lay dormant. 

Government figures show that the number of gang members, including those from Salvadoran gangs, has been increasing since 2017. They have introduced widespread extortion of migrants and the transportation sector, reported the Associated Press in February 2023.

The number of gang members has increased 214% from 2021 to 2022, according to a National Institute of Migration (INM) information request filed by El Sol de Mexico. El Heraldo de Chiapas reported that as of March 18, 2023, 11 gang members had been arrested in the state in 2023.

In 2022, the FGE reported that they had captured 148 members of MS-13 and Barrio 18 between January and October 2022. InSight Crime pointed out that these gang members are not all Salvadoran. 61 were Mexican, 50 were from El Salvador, and 15 from Honduras.

In response, the Mexican government has created police units specializing in counter gang actions. Further, they are cooperating with the FBI created CAT, an information sharing network that several central American governments participate in, sharing gang information.

The Associated Press reported that Mexican authorities blame the increase partly on intense gang crackdowns in El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele has suspended some rights in a state of emergency that has seen 64,000 alleged gang members locked up.  

Three MS-13 members hiding in Mexico handed over to Salvadoran authorities.4/17/23. Source. 

José Mateo Martínez, Chiapas state official told the Associated Press: “People are coming to hide from that, but there are also gang leaders who come to create a criminal group here".

Sources: Diario del Sur, El Sol de Mexico, Fiscalía General Chiapas Informe, InSight Crime, Heraldo de Chiapas Reporte 2017, Associated Press

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