Over 40 gangsters held in El Salvador over murders

State prosecutors in El Salvador announced on 23 January the arrests of 33 members of the M-18 gang for their suspected roles in beheading three youngsters in the eastern Izalco district last October, while eight other members of M-18 were arrested for their suspected roles in killing five rivals in the southern port of La Libertad in September. The head of the homicides office at the state prosecution service (Unidad Especial Antihomicidios Fiscalía General de la República) Óscar Torres said that the arrests had netted half or more of the members of the M-18's "Southern" line or faction, thought responsible for multiple crimes in Izalco in the Sonsonate department north-east of San Salvador. The 33 were suspected of taking part in the kidnapping, interrogation and murder with machetes of three youngsters aged between 17 and 21, on an estate on 11 October, the website elsalvador.com reported on 24 January. The daily El Mundo noted that the victims were suspected of being members of a rival gang, though state investigators later dismissed this. Eight other members of M-18's Southern line were also arrested for the murder on 18 September of five rivals in the Pacific port of La Libertad; officials have reportedly arrested more than 20 in relation with that incident. The victims, purported members of a rival faction in M-18, were aged between 13 and 18 and included a 16-year-old girl. The gang chief who ordered the killing first phoned to ask permission from his boss, currently serving a sentence in a prison west of the capital, elsalvador.com reported on 24 Januuary. He called from the home of a policeman who was also a member of the M-18 and was arrested in early October. Gang violence has reportedly declined in El Salvador since a ceasefire began in March 2012; instructions given out by imprisoned gang chiefs that violence stop among members may have been the reason for seeking approval before this killing.