Since the end of El Salvador’s civil war, the country’s police has become a key player in the underworld. This series of five articles explore the dark ties between criminal organizations and the government’s key crime-fighting arm.
The Infiltrators: Corruption in El Salvador's Police
Ricardo Mauricio Menesses Orellana liked horses, and the Pasaquina rodeo was a great opportunity to enjoy a party. He was joined at the event -- which was taking place in the…
'Chepe Luna,' the Police and the Art of Escape
The United States -- which through its antinarcotics, judicial and police attaches was very familiar with the routes used for smuggling, and especially those used for people trafficking and understood…
Operation Chameleon in El Salvador: Anatomy of a Failure
The experience with Jose Natividad "Chepe" Luna -- the drug trafficker who had eluded a giant dragnet in 2004 -- had demonstrated that the leaks from the National Police of…
How an El Salvador Drug Trafficker Smuggled Cocaine Into the US
The woman phoned the office of the antinarcotics division (DAN) in Bolivar, in El Salvador's La Union province, on August 13, 2008, at 1:30 PM. Investigators later established that what…
The Fixer and El Salvador's Missed Opportunity
In the photograph, they are both smiling. In the foreground, on the left hand side, a man in a short-sleeved buttoned white shirt, jeans and a metal watch, holds a…
Related Content
A new report describes recent shifts in the characteristics of violence in El Salvador, and it offers recommendations for how…
A new initiative is teaching gang members in El Salvador vocational skills like farming and carpentry work, in an encouraging…
Electoral pacts between politicians of all stripes and gangs in El Salvador are no longer surprising, but a new investigation…
Support Our Work
Investigating organized crime is an expensive and often risky enterprise. Reaching primary sources and getting the real story involve extensive fieldwork. Please donate. Every dollar supports our mission.
DONATE NOW