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Official: Salvadoran gangs buying automatic rifles

By Marcos Aleman
Published April 26, 2014 3:11am ET
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Official: Salvadoran gangs buying automatic rifles
In this April 16, 2014 photo, police officers carry the casket containing the body of police investigator Elmer Antonio Bautista during a burial ceremony in Izalco, El Salvador. According to the police, Bautista was murdered by members of the Mara 18 gang while on duty. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez) | SALVADOR MELENDEZ

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s Mara street gangs are arming themselves with high-powered rifles and some gang members have tried to join the army to get military training, a top official said Friday.

Public Safety Minister Ricardo Perdomo said the Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 street gangs are buying automatic rifles in the black market in Honduras and Guatemala, and also getting them from the brutal Zetas drug cartel.

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El Salvador Guns and Firearms World