Thanks to the investigation strategies of the Prosecutor’s Office, it was possible to show that six gang members of the “Tecla locos Salvatruchos” clique that operated in La Libertad, were guilty of kidnapping a victim in July 2019, when he was on board the route of buses 101-D towards Santa Tecla.
The respective court imposed 10 years in prison for Wilber Ulises Portillo Peña, and 9 years in prison for Carlos Ernesto Renderos, José Vidal Beltrán Valle, Enrique Antonio Guillén Cabrera, Carlos Ovidio Portillo Peña and Kevin Adalberto Beltrán Zavaleta. The defendants were prosecuted for the crime of Deprivation of Liberty.
The events occurred when the victim was aboard public transport heading to a neighborhood in Santa Tecla; At one of the stops, one of the gang members got on and addressed the victim, initially asking for her cell phone and immediately ordering her to get off the bus.
Downstairs several individuals were waiting for them in a vehicle, inside they covered her face, covered her mouth and tied her up; then they beat the victim and yelled that they were going to kill her. The gang members took the affected person to a clandestine bakery, located at Casa 5-3B on Paseo Concepción and Primera Calle Poniente, Santa Tecla, La Libertad.
At the time the criminals arrived at the scene, a patrol passed, the police officers realized that they were transporting a person and they were beating him, so they proceeded to intercept them. The gang members entered the house and tried to flee but were caught in flagrante delicto.
The agents released the victim and transferred him to a care center and granted him a protection regime.
The gang members were sentenced by the Second Sentencing Court of Santa Tecla
