El Salvador Scares Drug Lords Off With Massive Prison

Drug lords are fleeing El Salvador in fear of being locked up in what will the be country’s largest prison.

President Nayib Bukele announced the construction of the massive jail, which is designed to hold thousands of gang members.

The complex will be known as the “Terrorism Confinement Center”, stated the president in a tweet, and it will have several layers of walls and as many as 37 watchtowers.

Les presento la construcción del:

CENTRO DE CONFINAMIENTO DEL TERRORISMO

En esta #GuerraContraPandillas y gracias al Régimen de Excepción, hemos arrestado a más de 40,000 terroristas.

Pero aún falta camino por recorrer… pic.twitter.com/4TUI7LK2CQ

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) June 22, 2022

“A gang member in a community is like a cancer cell, and we have to apply chemotherapy. We are not going to rest until the last gang member in our territory has been captured,” Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro told Congress recently.

El Salvador launched an unprecedented crackdown on drug gangs in March this year after nearly 100 people were murdered in two days. Over 55,000 gang members have been detained so far, with thousands of others going into hiding.

The government has equipped the security forces with a special law, under which they can arrest anyone without a warrant.

The Central American country of 5 million people has long been plagued by gang violence, with criminal groups like MS-13 and Barrio-18 fighting each other to gain control over drug trafficking routes.