El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office has accused 20 people of links to recently arrested drug trafficker "Repollo," as a picture emerges of the transnational network run by the Salvadoran "transportista."

Extradited Colombian paramilitary and drug trafficker Juan Carlos Sierra Ramirez, alias "El Tuso," has been released early for collaborating with US authorities, again raising questions about the effectiveness of extraditing the country's criminals to the United States.

With the recent capture of a Salvadoran drug trafficker, Central America stands to lose one of its most powerful "transportistas." But the timing of the arrest only serves to highlight how he likely enjoyed official protection for years. 

Roberto Vargas Gutierrez, alias “Gavilan,” has transformed himself from Maoist guerrilla to

Until his extradition to the United States in 2008, Diego Fernando Murillo, alias “Don Berna,” was the leader of mafia group the Oficina de Envigado, which grew from the ashes of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel.

Francisco, or Frank, Zeledon, runs a drug trafficking network from the city of Bluefields on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast. He is best known in the region as a businessman, landowner and ship builder.

Originally from San Andres, Colombia, Carmona identifies himself as Alberto Ruiz Cano in Nicaragua. He has also used the name Amauri Paudd. He is believed to be a second-generation drug trafficker: his father was reportedly a member of the Cali Cartel.

Medellin native Henry de Jesus Lopez, alias "Mi Sangre,” began his criminal career with the Oficina de Envigado, where he was primarily charged with trafficking drugs and women for his bosses, before joining the paramilitary umbrella organization AUC, and then the Urabeños. Mi Sangre was captured in Argentina in October 2012.

Jose Eberto Lopez Montero, alias "Caracho," is a former soldier who was recruited into the ranks of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), fighting for the paramilitary organization in Colombia's Eastern Plains. He would later lead paramilitary successor group the ERPAC, before surrendering to the government in 2011.

Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, alias "Timochenko," is only the third commander-in-chief in the FARC's nearly 50-year history. Of the three, Timochenko has the most mysterious past. Some sources say he is a trained medical doctor, but there is no record of his studies. Most say he hails from Quindio, a coffee-growing province in central Colombia which saw some of the country's worst political violence during a decades-long upheaval that began in the 1940s and ended just before groups like the FARC emerged in the mid-1960s.