El Salvador’s Black Widows – Female Leadership in MS13
https://www.insightcrime.org/page/2/?highlight=WyJ2aWNlcm95Il0%3D
An MS13 linked gang in El Salvador known as the Black Widows has been convicted of forcing women to marry men and then killing their new husbands as part of a complex life insurance scheme — a case which helps shed light on women in organized crime in Central America.
On March 4, seven of the Black Widows, a group with male and female members, were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on charges of sexual exploitation and forced marriage. The gang’s ringleader was Esmeralda Aravel Flores Acosta, a woman who had been convicted previously on similar charges, according to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office.
The Black Widows tracked down and deceived wealthy men into marrying certain women, under the guise that the marriages would help them obtain legal residency in the United States. A life insurance policy was also a “pre-requisite” for the US residency, according to the scheme.
The group subsequently had MS13 members murder the husbands and force the wives to collect the life insurance payouts. The BBC reported that the Black Widows collected at least $100,000 from this scheme.