Honduras police arrest US woman accused of being gang leader | Honduras

Honduras police arrest US woman accused of being gang leader

• Amarjit ‘La Chucky’ Pabla, 21, said to head a faction of Mara Barrio 18
• California-born Pabla accused of ordering killings in territorial disputes

A 21-year-old American woman has been detained in Honduras for allegedly heading a faction of the Mara Barrio 18, one of the gangs responsible for a crime wave in the Central American country that has sent families flocking to the United States seeking refuge.

Amarjit “La Chucky” Pabla and two other Hondurans were arrested on Tuesday night in a poor neighbourhood of the capital Tegucigalpa, where authorities also seized seven firearms.

A spokeswoman for the National Anti-Extortion Force (FNA) police unit said that Pabla planned and ordered killings in territorial disputes with rival gangs.

Pabla, who was born in California to an American father and a Honduran mother, is the wife of Cristian Ariel “Little Sam” Calix, a Barrio 18 leader who has been in prison since December on charges of arms and drug trafficking, according to FNA.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Honduras said the embassy takes its obligation to support American citizens abroad very seriously and will provide all appropriate consular assistance to Pabla.

Formed in the 1980s in the United States by Central American immigrants, the “maras” morphed into feared international gangs when, a decade later, many of their leaders were deported to their countries of origin such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Women rarely hold leadership positions in the gangs.

The two most dangerous gangs, Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha 13, are waging a war to dominate extortion, drug dealing and theft that has turned Central America into one of the most dangerous regions of the world.

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