HomeNewsBrief'Guatemala Inmates Extorted 5 Star Hotels in El Salvador'
BRIEF

'Guatemala Inmates Extorted 5 Star Hotels in El Salvador'

EL SALVADOR / 28 MAR 2012 BY EDWARD FOX EN

Guatemala prison inmates have been accused of making threatening phone calls to large hotel chains in neighboring El Salvador, pointing to the growing popularity of long-distance extortion schemes.

Prosecutors from Guatemala and El Salvador are investigating an alleged extortion ring that was run from a maximum security prison (pictured) in Escuintla department, southern Guatemala. The gang reportedly targeted large businesses in neighboring El Salvador, among them the Sheraton and Hilton hotels, reports Prensa Libre.

According to the prosecutors handling the case, hotel owners and managers received threatening calls demanding up to $500,000 in payments. In some cases, after receiving the threats the victims transferred payments of $2,000 to $5,000 via Western Union.

Investigations managed to trace the origin of most of the phone calls back to the Infiernito maximum security prison in Escuintla. Other calls were traced back to the Guatemalan city of Jalapa.

Eight people have been arrested and sent to El Salvador where they will be tried for extortion. Prosecutors say they are currently investigating an additional 15 complaints. According to Prensa Libre, the group behind the long distance calls is known as the "Chapin" prison gang. They may have also tried to extort victims in Honduras.

InSight Crime Analysis

Extortion by cell phone is an attractive and relatively low-risk option for criminals. Callers can make threats sound convincing by exploiting information about the victim's personal life easily obtained from social networking websites, such as the names of their children or the vehicle that they drive. Callers may also claim to be affiliated to large criminal organizations like the Zetas, in order to amplify their threats.

The Guatemala case indicates that more groups are willing to place calls outside their native country. Guatemala has also reported receiving extortion threats from callers in Mexico, who have identified themselves as the Zetas.

Such extortion rings are typically run from inside prison, as seems to be the case with the so-called Chapin group. If they were able to successfully extort thousands of dollars from large companies across the border in El Salvador -- who presumably believed the gang would make good on their threats -- it points to just how easy it is for prison gangs to profit from these extortion schemes, often with little more than a phone number.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently announced that it would help train a new anti-extortion unit in El Salvador, where nearly 3,000 extortion cases were reported last year.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

EXTORTION / 13 JUL 2022

Scammers in Mexico have yet again evolved their modus operandi by using express credit apps to extort users and drain…

BARRIO 18 / 1 MAR 2022

Fired prison employees in El Salvador have claimed they witnessed negotiations among government officials and imprisoned gang leaders, adding weight…

EXTORTION / 28 JAN 2022

Cartels are known for shakedowns of avocado growers, but lime farmers have been unnoticed victims of similar extortion schemes in…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…