Paz

Aparicio’s late grandmother, Maria de la Paz Torres Aparicio, handcrafted dolls adorned with clothes that people left behind during the war.

Suspecting that their plans for a raid had been leaked, Mr de la Paz and his colleagues raced straight for the compound.

According to de la Paz, he and his colleagues found more than 300 foreign nationals in the Bamban compound, many of them working there against their will.

Their bosses meanwhile lived in a separate gated enclave, says de la Paz, who showed the BBC one of the villas there.

But given how influential the syndicates have become, there are concerns that leaks within the security forces and government institutions are allowing criminals to evade capture, according to Mr de la Paz.