They find a Pinochet pistol lost in 2014 in an anti-drug operation

2023-05-10 03:17:00

Augusto Pinochet Former President of Chile.// File Photo

A Pietro Beretta pistol that belonged to the dictator Augusto Pinochet, lost since 2014, was recovered by the Chilean Police during an anti-drug operation in the Valdivia city.

The weapon was in the possession of a 15-year-old teenager who, while trying to escape from the authorities, threw it into the patio of a house along with a bag of drugs.

The police seized the gun and caught the young man for “illegal possession of a firearm” and attempted murder, within the framework of an anti-drug action.

During the court hearing, prosecutor Tatiana Esquivel argued that the 380 caliber weapon, with a brown grip, had the inscription “Augusto Pinochet U”.

The teenager would have fired the same weapon during a shooting that was recorded in a viral video.

The gun had been reported missing on May 8, 2014 in the metropolitan region of Santiago, 870 kilometers from where it was confiscated, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The AFP agency said it had contacted the police and the family of the dictator who died in 2006 but did not obtain details on the circumstances in which the pistol was lost.

Pinochet led, between 1973 and 1990, a military regime that left 40,175 victims, among executed, disappeared detainees, political prisoners and tortured, according to figures from the official commission that investigated the crimes of the dictatorship.

The Chilean prosecutor’s office is investigating whether the weapon was involved in other criminal acts, after a video of a shooting in which it was used went viral on social networks.