A pistol that belonged to the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who disappeared in 2014, was accidentally found during an anti-drug operation in southern Chile, the public prosecutor's office said Tuesday. The weapon was in the possession of a 15-year-old boy who, to evade police during an operation Friday in the city of Valdivia, threw it into the yard of a house along with a bag full of drugs.

Police recovered the weapon and arrested the teenager for "illegal possession of a firearm" and attempted murder, a source in the prosecutor's office told AFP. During the teenager's appearance in court, prosecutor Tatiana Esquivel said the weapon, a .380-caliber Beretta with a brown stock, bore the inscription "Augusto Pinochet U". The full name of the former dictator is Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.


🔴LO ÚLTIMO | PDI relies on the recovery of an arma registered with Augusto Pinochet Ugarte in Valdiviahttps://t.co/5ghvQi4T1N #ValdiviaCL pic.twitter.com/2NY4bFYQEa

— Informa Al Minuto (@InformaAlMinuto) May 8, 2023

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The weapon found 870 kilometers from the place of his disappearance

The gun was reported missing in 2014 in the region of the capital Santiago, some 870 kilometers from where it was found, the prosecutor's office said. Contacted by AFP, police and the late dictator's family declined to comment on how the gun was lost nine years ago.



Augusto Pinochet, who died in 2006 at the age of 91, led a military regime in Chile from 1973 to 1990 during which more than 40,000 people were executed, disappeared or tortured, according to official figures. Chilean prosecutors are investigating whether the weapon was used in other criminal acts after a video went viral on social media showing a shooting in which the gun was allegedly used.

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