This week, authorities in Peru doubled the bounty to an unprecedented quarter of a million dollars for an organized crime boss known as “El Monstruo” (the Monster), who is now the South American country’s most-wanted criminal. The move highlights the growing urgency of tackling the country’s booming extortion market.
Erick Moreno Hernández, alias “El Monstruo”, has evaded capture since fleeing Peru last year, and is accused of leading Los Injertos del Cono Norte, a criminal network responsible for kidnappings, contract killings, and extortion across northern Lima. The group is best known for extorting the transport industry, prompting multiple driver strikes in Lima over the last year. El Monstruo is also suspected of ordering the murder of singer Paul Flores, a popular figure in the Peruvian music scene, whose killing triggered a state of emergency back in March this year.
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Under mounting pressure from the security forces, El Monstruo fled Peru and allegedly settled in Brazil where, according to media reporting and Peruvian authorities, he is operating under the protection of the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC). Former Interior Minister Ruben Vargas claims the networks are developing an alliance aimed at “expanding territorial control and strengthening drug trafficking networks”.
Since fleeing Peru, El Monstruo has embedded himself within a growing ‘Peruvian mafia” in Brazil, according to Brazilian media. There, reports indicate, he leads “Los Guevara,” also known as the “Guerreiros Sangrentos” (“Bloody Warriors”) – an offshoot of his Lima Norte extortion network. El Monstruo has even appeared demanding extortion payments and threatening victims in videos circulating across São Paulo.
The Brazilian and Peruvian authorities have joined forces to attempt to bring down this growing Peruvian mafia, according to reports. On April 16, São Paulo’s Public Ministry and police launched Operation Sicários, deploying 160 special forces officers and executing 25 search-and-arrest warrants across the city. The raids led to violent shoot-outs, but El Monstruo remains at large.
Shortly after, on June 6, Peru issued extradition requests to Brazil and Paraguay, citing El Monstruo’s alleged criminal ties to both nations. In the latter, Peruvian police indicate that he is supported by Jazmín Martínez, a Paraguayan national believed to have facilitated his escape from Peru and managed the laundering of extortion proceeds from Lima Norte.
InSight Crime Analysis
El Monstruo’s emergence as Peru’s most wanted criminal highlights the critical role extortion now plays in the country’s criminal landscape. With most rewards on Peru’s “most wanted” list ranging between 10,000 soles ($2,700) and 30,000 soles ($8,300), the unprecedented one million sol ($277,000) bounty placed on information leading to his capture reflects a new level of urgency.
It surpasses the amount offered for other high-profile fugitives, including Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero”—the alleged leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, and one of Peru’s most high-profile fugitives, regional governor Vladimir Cerrón, who is wanted for organized crime and aggravated collusion. Both carry rewards of 500,000 soles ($138,000).
The prioritization of the capture of El Monstruo reflects how in numerous cities, extortion has overtaken other forms of crime as the most common criminal activity, Christian Campos Vásquez, associate researcher at Peru’s National Institute of Criminology, told InSight Crime. The country’s other major criminal markets are drug trafficking and illegal mining.
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The transformation of El Monstruo’s organization from a local extortion gang to a transnational criminal network with ties in Brazil and beyond represents a major evolutionary leap for Peru’s extortion gangs, and a broader transformation within Peru’s criminal landscape, said security analyst Pedro Yaranga.
Local gangs that once operated in limited territories in urban centers are now consolidating power, replicating the extreme violence of transnational actors as they expand into new regions of Peru and beyond.
El Monstruo, Yaranga notes, “started with a small group but expanded as he accumulated large profits from extorting entrepreneurs across different sectors.”
The potential connection to Brazil’s PCC, if confirmed, would allow El Monstruo greater protection and allow the Brazilian group to expand more easily into Peru through El Monstruo’s contacts, according to Yaranga.
Other groups, Yaranga said, could follow this example.
“Small native gangs that used to rob on the move without much violence, have always existed, but now have been trained by transnational criminal organizations.” These groups are now replicating the extreme brutality of their larger counterparts and are expanding into new regions of Peru and beyond, he added.
Featured Image: Erick Moreno Hernández, alias “El Monstruo” (the Monster). Credit: Peru’s government.