GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The director of a United Nations commission investigating and prosecuting corruption in Guatemala says the team will extend its work in the Central American country three more years.

Director Francisco Dall'Anese said Tuesday the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala needs to keep working until 2015 to bring change.

The commission began operating in January 2008 to dismantle illegal security groups and to bring officials under the law. It has also taken on rampant vigilante justice, which includes contract killings of criminals.

The U.N.-backed investigative team of police and prosecutors from 25 nations has been highly effective in prosecuting crime in Guatemala, which has one of the highest murder rates in the region. Nearly 2,000 police and government officials have been fired or sent to jail since its creation.