A gun that once belonged to his dead former dictator ChileAugusto Pinochet, was found and captured by police during an anti-trafficking operation drugs in the southern part of the Latin American country.
Police seized the gun and arrested the teenager, who is charged with “illegal possession of a weapon” and attempted murder, a source close to the prosecution told AFP.
During the interrogation of the teenager, prosecutor Tatyana Esquivel said that The 380 caliber Beretta pistol was engraved with the inscription “Augusto Pinochet U” on the handle. The full name of the former dictator was Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.
The Pinochet family lost sight of the weapon ten years ago. In April 2014, Marco Antonio Pinochet Iriart, son of the dictator, reported missing a pistol at a police station in Lo Barnesea, Santiago province, along with 17 other weapons, including a rifle, several pistols and revolvers.
In late 2014, Pinochet’s widow sold the mansion where the former dictator had lived since 2000 after returning to Chile following his arrest in London. The next year, the new owners, who bought the house for $1.6 million, demolished the 1,500-square-foot lot to build an apartment building.
There are currently about 770,000 firearms registered in Chile. Of those added to the registry over the past three years, at least 60 percent were reported as lost or stolen, North Central Capital District Attorney Tanya Shironvalle said in an interview last November.
Police and the former dictator’s family declined to comment on how the gun disappeared nine years ago.
Augusto Pinochet, who died in 2006 at the age of 91, was the leader of the military regime in Chile from 1973 to 1990. During the military junta, according to official statistics, more than 40,000 people were killed, “missing” or tortured. The former dictator was never tried.
Chilean prosecutors are investigating whether the weapons were used in other crimes after a video of a shootout in which they were believed to have been used went viral on social media.
According to AFP, El Pais
Source: Kathimerini
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