El Salvador has witnessed the way drug money corrupts institutions, including the police and military, and the highest levels of government

El Salvador has witnessed the way drug money corrupts institutions, including the police and military, and the highest levels of government.

Capt. Hector Guillen was a ranking officer in the Salvadoran army's elite special forces. He had access to enormous supplies of military-grade weaponry, much of it, like one cache of half a million U.S.-supplied grenades and shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, left over from the war. In November, just outside Washington, he allegedly offered to trade 3,000 assault rifles, 20 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives and scores of grenades for drugs and money to people he thought were representing leftist Colombian guerrillas.

Instead, Guillen, 32, was trapped in a sting operation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He was arrested and last month indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury on charges of attempting to provide material support to what Washington has designated as a terrorist organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. A trial was set for May.

It was the most significant case yet in establishing the depths of drug corruption in the Salvadoran military and might have reached higher levels had a press leak not shut down the investigation.

In another case, Salvadoran intelligence officials have identified 16 police and 10 military officers they suspect of working with an L.A.-born gangster known as El Burro, who has also affiliated himself with the Zetas. He controls much of the trafficking through western El Salvador and has laundered his money through hotels, resorts and car washes, the officials allege.

Mexican drug traffickers first made inroads in El Salvador with the Mara Salvatrucha, the country's oldest and most receptive gang, eager to hire itself out. The other major group, the 18th Street gang, was more suspicious of the Mexicans and resisted outside pressure until early this year, according to Salvadoran intelligence sources.

An attack on a passenger bus last month in which seven people were killed may have been an initiation test for the 18th Street gangsters to prove themselves to the Zetas, the sources said. Salvadoran gangs also have started delivering unsuspecting immigrants trying to cross into the United States into the waiting hands of Zetas, who then try to extort money from the victims' families upon pain of death.

Police say they recently discovered what they believe to be a Zetas training ground hidden in coffee fields on the edge of the Guazapa volcano, which dominates San Salvador's skyline.

Few discoveries, however, could match the plastic barrels discovered last fall buried on properties that authorities have tied to Jorge Mario Paredes-Cordova, who was convicted in the United States in April on drug charges and sentenced to 31 years in prison. The U.S. federal attorney handling the case described the Guatemalan as one of the world's most dangerous drug traffickers.

Paredes-Cordova liked to visit El Salvador and, apparently, thought it a good place to hide some of his millions. His numerous houses were full of trap doors and walls that moved with the touch of a button to reveal secret compartments, according to people who inspected the properties.

On an unoccupied farm, authorities acting on DEA intelligence discovered plastic water barrels with $100 bills and 500-euro notes — more than $10 million in cash.