Driver and collector arrested while collecting extortion on behalf of the ‘Gang 18’

The Anti-Mara and Gang Police Directorate Against Organized Crime ( Dipampco ) captured two citizens on Saturday, a driver and a collector of the ‘rapiditos’ bus service who were collecting extortion fees on behalf of the ‘Gang 18’ in Comayagüela.

The operation took place near a shopping center in the La Laguna neighborhood of Comayagüela, where the arrest was made in a public transport unit on the Cerro Grande-Villanueva route in the middle of an extortion act.

The detainees have been identified as ‘Clitman’, 29, and ‘Landis’, 25, driver and conductor of the transport unit with registration 0615, respectively, who threatened and intimidated their colleagues to commit this crime.

At the same time, the transport unit and two cell phones were seized and will be subject to thorough investigations, as they could be linked to the detainees’ illegal activities.

The main victims were the workers on the same route, who were threatened with death if they did not comply with the required payments.

It is worth noting that on the same day, the transport unit with license plate T PA 4642 was caught by a resident of the capital breaking the traffic law by raising its right side tires onto the sidewalk to move faster, near the José de la Paz Herrera National Stadium.

The alleged extortionists did not imagine that hours later Dipampco agents would seize the cash from the extortion.

Dipampco authorities are on alert due to the high number of transporters involved in extortion of their own colleagues.

In 2023 alone, public transport has paid between 500 and 600 million lempiras to criminal groups, despite measures such as the state of emergency.

In the last fourteen years, more than five thousand public transport drivers have been killed for not paying extortion in Honduras and Guatemala.

Dipampco has called on workers in the transport sector to collaborate more actively in the fight against this crime.