Forty-one percent of imported firearms are in Paraguay’s black market

Asunción, Nov 28 (Prensa Latina) Forty-one percent of the firearms imported by Paraguay in the last four years are in the hands of criminal gangs, according to a specialized official institution quoted by Última Hora on Monday.

November 28, 2023
00:15

The institution added that 17,000 out of 41,000 weapons entered and registered by the Directorate of War Material (DIMABEL) between 2020 and 2023 have avoided official control and currently belong to criminal gangs in the region, especially in the bordering State of Brazil.

Those weapons “legally imported by some 22 commercial companies slipped under DIMABEL’s radar and found their way to the black market, the newspaper reported.

More than 23,700 weapons that arrived in the country during this period, according to the government agency, are in the hands of some 1,000 people in the southwestern regions of Asunción and Central, while others were seized by authorities in areas bordering the Brazilian city of Foz de Yguazú.

According to DIMABEL’s statistics, the amount of firearms unaccounted for in Paraguay could supply 100 percent of the Armed Forces or 80 percent of the national police.

jg/iff/mem/apb