Honduran soldiers transported members of two hyperviolent gangs to a high-security prison following a recent breakout where nearly two dozen members eluded military personnel guarding the complex.
The Honduran government said Tuesday it had completed the relocation of 2,000 high-risk inmates to a maximum security prison, TeleSUR reported.
The transfer took place on Monday with more than 3,000 police and military personnel, 245 vehicles, and five aircraft overseeing the operation. The heavily armed escort transferred 773 members of the hyperviolent MS-13 and Barrio 18 street gangs to a new maximum-security prison east of Tegucigalpa.
The operation, named “Operation Arpía,” launched in March with the goal of breaking the power that gangs have while in prison where they can coordinate criminal activity.
“Today we can state that the 2,000 most dangerous inmates in the country are completely isolated,” Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez told a news conference.
El Poza, Honduras’ new maximum security prison, was designed to hold inmates in isolated cells away from others to restrict communication and coordination.
Breitbart Texas reported on Tuesday that at least 22 members of Barrio 18 escaped a military prison in Honduras to avoid the new maximum-security quarters.
“The prisoners fled because arrangements are being made to transfer them to new, high-security jails and they don’t want to go to those places,” the head of the National Penitentiary Institute, Rosa Gudiel, said.
Ryan Saavedra is a contributor for Breitbart Texas and can be found on Twitter at @RealSaavedra.
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