A member of MS-13 who was on the run was found hiding in a coffin while two of his friends tried to sneak him from El Salvador into Guatemala.
Tuesday, when police were patrolling a highway in the western city of Santa Ana, they saw a casket sitting on top of a car and became suspicious. They pulled over the driver, who was only 12 miles from the Guatemalan border, to check out the car.
The agents looked through the car and then opened the box to find Alexander Hernández lying inside with a white sheet over him.
Walter Zelaya and Rafael Juárez, two members of the MS-13 gang who were driving Hernández, were also caught.
Alexander Hernández was caught on Tuesday in Santa Ana, El Salvador. He was a member of the MS-13 gang. He was hiding in a coffin that was tied to the roof of a car.
On Tuesday, police in Santa Ana, El Salvador, were shocked to find a member of the MS-13 gang hiding inside a casket.
Local news outlets said that all three men were named as suspects in the killing of a person in the city of Usulután in the southeast of El Salvador.
El Salvador's Security Minister, Gustavo Villatoro, tweeted, "These cowardly terrorists are running out of places to hide and ways to get away from the law." At a traffic stop, this member of a gang was found being moved in a coffin.
The government of President Nayib Bukele is doing everything it can to stop gang violence. In 2022, the number of murders dropped by 56.8%.
Last year, there were 496 murders, but in 2021, there will be 1,147. If the deaths of people in gangs were also counted, the totals for 2022 would go up to 600.