El Salvador's police reported that they had seized some 1,010 illegal firearms in the eastern part of the country in the first eight months of 2011.
The police said that the most common weapons confiscated were caliber 38 and 9 milimeter revolvers, but that they also found larger weapons like sub-machine guns.
The number seized represents a slight decline from 2010, when around 10 percent more firearms were seized in the same period.
Some illegal weapons in El Salvador date from the time of the civil war, as many combatants did not give up their arms when the conflict ended in 1992. Others are stolen from military stocks, although police said that none of the weapons seized in the east in the last eight months were restricted to military use.
The eastern provinces of the country have traditionally been dominated by the Perrones trafficking federation. Many drugs and weapons enter the country through illicit ports in this region - see map below.
Source: El Diario de Hoy
See InSight Crime's profile of El Salvador here.
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