In a counter-firearms campaign across Central and South America, more than 14,000 people have been detained and 8,000 firearms have been seized, according to Interpol’s Tuesday report.
In addition to guns, the raids seized 370 tonnes of narcotics precursors (chemical ingredients) and almost 200 tonnes of cocaine and other substances worth $5.7 billion, according to a statement from the France-based police cooperation organization.
It was known as “Trigger IX” and was “the biggest firearms operation ever coordinated by Interpol,” it claimed.
“The fact that an operation targeting illicit firearms resulted in such massive drugs seizures is further proof, if needed, that these crimes are intertwined,” Interpol chief Juergen Stock said in the statement.
Beyond the people arrested and guns seized, police and other authorities also laid their hands on 305,000 rounds of ammunition.
A 100,000-round haul in Uruguay “trafficked internationally by two European nationals” was “the country’s largest-ever such seizure”, Interpol said.
The body said its actions had helped uncover other crimes including “corruption, fraud, human trafficking, environmental crime and terrorist activities”.
11 trafficked individuals were released in Paraguay, while members of the Balkans Cartel, PrimeiRo Comando da Capital, an organized crime group in Brazil, and the Mara Salvatrucha cartel in El Salvador were all detained for guns trafficking.
Participating nations were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, and the European Union sponsored the operation as a whole.
Police departments and other law enforcement organizations, such the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), were involved in Trigger IX.
