It is rare for a senior figure to describe the gangs’ secret world of brutality. David, who wore dark glasses, a baseball cap and rosary beads around his neck, would only tell his story in a moving car, keeping a constant eye out for the police or his sworn enemies.

He described his family’s reaction when he joined the gang. “For the first two years, your family is in mourning. You don’t exist to them. Then comes acceptance and resignation.”

He worked his way up through the ranks, first patrolling the neighbourhood and then completing an initiation.

“Somebody comes and tells the boss, it goes to the prisons where the heads are, to get the green light to do whatever he has to do,” he said, describing the process by which a young gang member will move up the organisation. “They’ll decide whether he has to get one finger, one tongue, one ear, one head.”

He won’t describe what he was asked to do, or “get”. Nor was he prepared to say how many people he has killed during his career.

“I can’t remember,” was his only reply to the question.

Eighteen years after he was recruited, dozens of his friends are dead. Dozens more are held in prison. David knows of only one man who has been allowed to leave the gang. That was after two of his brothers were killed – but even then he was allowed to start a new life only by joining a seminary.