Salvadoran authorities intercepted an intercity bus in El Salvador that was transporting arms, grenades and ammunition, apparently the property of the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS, youth gang, local media said Saturday.
During an operation carried out this Friday in San Salvador, agents of the Transnational Anti-gang Center seized an AK-47 rifle, an M-1 carbine, two M-67 grenades and 100 cartridges, the daily Diario de Hoy said.
The armaments were being transported in a suitcase found in the baggage compartment of a bus traveling between San Salvador and the city of San Miguel, some 138 kilometers (86 miles) east of this capital.
A National Civilian Police bulletin said that an intelligence operation discovered that MS gang members operating in the rural area around the town of Soyapango, 6 kilometers (4 miles) east of San Salvador, were planning to ship arms to the eastern part of the country.
“Found in the baggage compartment of the bus was a suitcase with no identification, which contained, besides clothes, the weapons wrapped in newspapers and plastic bags,” the police report said.
The authorities were unable to make any arrests, but according to the press, a woman is being investigated who took the suitcase to the bus, where she handed it over for shipping.
Local media said that the operation was set in motion by a tip from an unidentified person.
