The Investigative Police (PDI), the Prosecutor’s Office and the Prison Service arrested 13 people accused of belonging to "Los del 30", a criminal group operating in municipalities in southern Santiago. According to police, an inmate in pretrial detention ran it from his cell.
CNN Chile reported this, citing the head of the Metropolitan Specialized Police Investigation Brigade (Bipe) Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Prefect Hassel Barrientos. According to Emol, the gang operated in San Bernardo, La Pintana and El Bosque.
Barrientos said the investigation established the offenses of criminal association, violations of the Arms Law, violations of the Drug Law and money laundering. According to his account, the group laundered money obtained from drug and arms trafficking.
Those arrested include two minors, aged 14 and 17, and two foreign nationals. Emol reported that both foreign nationals are Venezuelan. On X, the PDI published a different figure: nine Chilean suspects aged between 17 and 26. The sources do not explain why the figures differ.
Police raided 11 properties in different municipalities. They seized drugs, ammunition for pistols and revolvers, long guns and weapons they classified as military weapons. They also found printers and stamps that the gang allegedly used to forge vehicle documents.
The Prison Service also searched a cell at the Special High-Security Penitentiary Facility (REPAS), a maximum-security section within the former Santiago Uno Penitentiary, where the alleged leader was being held. According to Barrientos, that inmate received drugs entering the prison, controlled the quantities of drugs and weapons available and received reports from the rest of the group. The prefect said the inmate had already been transferred out of Santiago Uno.
The PDI maintains that the gang recruited minors as soldiers to commit robberies in exchange for money and to confront rival groups, and supplied them with weapons. According to Emol, it also recruited foreign nationals, most of whom had irregular immigration status.
The Supraterritorial Prosecutor’s Office, headed by Chief Prosecutor Miguel Ángel Orellana, coordinated the regional prosecutor’s offices involved in the case. Barrientos explained that the investigation brought together previously separate cases, such as weapons and drug seizures handled by different prosecutor’s offices and seizures at Santiago Uno.
Orellana said this case confirms that events inside prisons often have effects outside them. For its part, the Prison Service said it has no information indicating that prison officers collaborated with the gang.
For now, those arrested have not had a formal investigation hearing. At this hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office informs a person before a judge that they are being investigated for specific offenses. Barrientos announced that the Prosecutor’s Office will request a formal investigation hearing on October 16 for those arrested who were not already in custody. The sources did not provide the RIT or RUC, the numbers used to identify the case in the courts and at the Prosecutor’s Office.
