Tegucigalpa (EFE).- At least 1,105 firearms of various calibers, between regular and artisanal, and 23,925 projectiles, have been seized during Operation Faith and Hope in the 25 prisons of the Honduran penitentiary system, the Military Police reported on Monday of Public Order (PMOP).
Among the 171 regular weapons seized are AR-15, M-16, AK-47, Galil rifles, Uzi submachine guns, shotguns, eight fragmentation grenades and eleven gas grenades, the head of the PMOP said at a press conference in Tegucigalpa, Ramiro Munoz.
There are 934 homemade weapons, around 5,000 marijuana and cocaine wrappers; 507 mobile phones, three satellite phones, more than a hundred electronic communication devices, 945 televisions, 20 air conditioners, 388 sound equipment, 18 vests, and 533,283 lempiras (about $21,600), among other things, that were shown to the press in Tegucigalpa.
It’s only 10 percent
What has been found inside prisons so far “is barely 10 percent,” according to Muñoz, who stressed that while he is in charge of the PMOP, which has intervened in the country’s 25 prisons on instructions from the Honduran president, Xiomara Castro, those deprived of liberty “will not control the prisons again.”
He added that the PMOP already has control of the 25 prisons and that in them there will no longer be “comforts for anyone”, the inmates will not have telephone communication, nor television, nor will women enter to visit them.
Muñoz stressed that all the weapons, ammunition and other devices seized that entered the prisons had the “complicity” of prison personnel and that now it will be up to the Public Ministry to investigate those responsible.
In addition, the officer indicated that the search for more weapons in prisons will continue, and that if there are soldiers or members of other security forces in arms trafficking in prisons, they will be made available for investigation.
According to Muñoz, all the gangs that have been controlling the country’s prisons are involved in bringing weapons into prisons.
A jail in the Swan Islands
Defense Minister José Manuel Zelaya said that all the corrupt, drug traffickers and gang leaders who have been controlling the country’s prisons will be sent to the new maximum security prison that will be built on the Swan Islands, in the Honduran Caribbean. , located 250 kilometers from the mainland.
He added that this prison will be built by order of President Xiomara Castro.
The announcement to build a prison in the Islas del Cisne is rejected by some Honduran sectors, mainly environmentalists, because they consider that it will represent serious environmental damage, in a region where there is no drinking water and is a national park.
Castro ordered the PMOP to intervene in the country’s prisons after the massacre of 46 women in the Women’s Center for Social Adaptation (CEFAS), near Tegucigalpa, and the massacre of thirteen people inside a pool hall in the Choloma sector , northern Honduras, on June 20 and 24