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| Members of a forensic team work at the crime scene |
About 20 gunmen dressed in military fatigues and police uniforms on Thursday killed three policemen and wounded two others during an attack to free one of the most senior leaders of the powerful MSโ13 gang, police said.
Alexander Mendoza, a notorious MSโ13 figure also known as โEl Porkyโ, escaped during the attack in the city of El Progreso, 175 kilometres (108 miles) north of the capital, Tegucigalpa. He was on way to a trial hearing.
The notorious MSโ13 crime group was founded by Salvadorans in Los Angeles in the 1980s and spread to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as the United States deported waves of migrants.
The most important MSโ13 leader on the northern city of San Pedro Sula, Mendoza had been captured in 2015 and sentenced to 20 years in jail on charges of illicit association and money laundering.
โWe are going to recapture this man and arrest those who helped him escape,โ said Deputy Minister of Security Luis Suazo.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernรกndez offered a reward of 2 million lempiras ($80,000) for information that leads to Mendozaโs recapture.
Local television showed images of about 20 uniformed men and with their faces covered shooting and then climbing into several vehicles to escape with Mendoza.
MSโ13, along with its rival Mara 18, are among the most powerful gangs operating in Central America, with most of their activities dedicated to extortion, assassinations and drug trafficking.
