April 22 (UPI) -- The Attorney General's Office of El Salvador presented new witnesses in the trial against 486 alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, who implicated 22 leaders of the gang as responsible for ordering thousands of crimes, including killings police officers and civilians.
The office said in a message published Tuesday that the testimonial evidence links the so-called ranfleros, considered the highest-ranking members of the gang, to the direct or indirect authorization of the crimes.
"No member of the structure acted without the direct or indirect instruction of the ranfla," the agency said, adding that the 22 gang leaders allegedly ordered up to 9,043 criminal acts.
These include killing more than 80 police officers and the order to murder 86 people during a weekend in March 2022 in actions the gang referred to as "open valves."
The judicial process began Monday in a specialized organized crime court, where the 486 defendants are being tried collectively for crimes committed between 2012 and 2022. They include homicide, extortion, forced disappearance and acts of rebellion, according to Mexican newspaper La Jornada.
