El Salvador's government has seized an average of 12 weapons per day so far in 2011, according to officials.
According to a report in La Prensa, Deputy Director of Public Safety Hugo Ramirez Mejia said that between January 1 and November 15 this year, the Firearms and Explosives Division (DAE) of the country’s police force seized a total of 3,915 firearms.
Ramirez Mejia said this was a similar figure to those seized in the same period last year.
Since January 2010, Salvadoran police have been working in collaboration with the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in an attempt to trace the origin of weapons seized by police in the country. However, authorities have so far not released any information on their findings.
Many of El Salvador’s illegal weapons can be traced back to weapons used in the country’s civil war, which ended in 1992. Many more are stolen from military stockpiles, and reach the hands of criminal groups via corrupt officials.
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