Mafia boss escapes prison, shocks Guatemala

Guatemala has launched a massive operation to hunt down the female leader of one of the country's most notorious criminal organizations after she escaped from prison for the second time.

The news that drug lord Marixa Lemus had escaped from prison again has caused a stir in Guatemala. According to AFP on May 12, the 47-year-old female leader escaped from a heavily guarded military prison north of the capital Guatemala City. Before her escape, Lemus was serving a 94-year sentence for kidnapping and attempting to murder Mayor Carlos Roberto Marroquin Fuentes of the southern city of Moyuta.

Female drug lord Lemus (center) is escorted by police in 2016. Screenshot from CANAL ANTIGUA

Guatemalan National Police Director Nery Ramos said a large force had been deployed to hunt for Lemus, also known as “The Boss”. “A nationwide alert has been declared and a manhunt has been launched,” AFP quoted Ramos as saying. The Interior Ministry has also offered a reward of 100,000 quetzales (about 309 million VND) for information leading to the whereabouts of “The Boss”.

Authorities are also investigating reports that some prison guards helped Lemus escape, according to El Periodico. The “boss” began serving her prison sentence in March 2015 after being convicted of plotting a bomb attack to assassinate Mayor Fuentes in December 2013. She previously escaped from a women’s prison in Guatemala City in May 2016 but was later recaptured.

Lemus’ gang is one of the largest criminal organizations in Guatemala, where drug-related violence and kidnappings are a constant headache for authorities. According to a 2013 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Guatemala’s homicide rate was 39.9 per 100,000 people. A new report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS, based in the UK) also shows that the country was among the top in terms of homicide rates in 2016, with 16,000. Some sources say Lemus has also worked with notorious gangs in Mexico and Colombia to “dominate” the underworld in southern Guatemala.

The “boss” comes from a family with a long history of politics in Moyuta. According to El Periodico, her brother served as mayor from 2008 until he died of a heart attack in October 2009. Both her sister and Ms. Lemus herself ran for office. Investigators believe that the mother of two’s initial move from mayoral candidate to leader of a notorious criminal organization was to avenge her family members.

El Periodico quoted Lemus as saying that Mr Fuentes had hired someone to kill her sister in 2011 to eliminate a political rival. Since then, many of Lemus’s relatives and friends have been murdered. Since then, she has not appeared in public and has begun using her family’s influence and money to build a gang.

However, from her initial intention of revenge, Lemus gradually went deeper into the path of crime and became a notorious and ruthless crime boss. She was accused of masterminding the kidnapping of Amanda Lemus Contreras for ransom in late 2013. Not long after, the victim's body was found in a village near the town of Garrobo. In addition, the police are also investigating the suspicion that Lemus murdered her husband to seize the inheritance and collect insurance money.

On the other hand, Lemus never lost her desire to take revenge on Mayor Fuentes. El Periodico quoted authorities as saying that the “Madam” had bribed at least five police officers to join her gang. In addition to preventing investigations and providing weapons, their main task was to report to Lemus information about Mr. Fuentes’ movements. According to court records, she ordered at least two attacks on Mr. Fuentes, but the officer was lucky to escape.

According to TNO