El Salvador police chief dies in helicopter crash

El Salvador's police chief, known for leading the country's "war" on gangs, was killed in a helicopter crash along with several others, the army said on Monday.

National Civil Police Director Mauricio Arriaza Chicas led El Salvador's crackdown on criminal gangs since March 2022, a campaign that has netted nearly 82,000 suspected gang members under a system that allows arrests without warrants.

The helicopter was also carrying Manuel Coto, a former manager of the Cosavi credit union, under police custody, it said, after his arrest in Honduras.

Coto had been on the run for allegedly embezzling around $35 million.

"We regret to confirm the death of all those on board the UH-1H helicopter of the Salvadoran Air Force, which crashed in Pasaquina" around 180 kilometers (112 miles) east of the capital San Salvador, the military said on social media platform X.

Others killed in the crash were two high-ranking commissioners, a corporal, a sergeant and two lieutenant pilots, according to officials and the defense ministry.

The state-run Canal 10 TV channel said David Cruz, head of communications for the justice ministry, was also killed. In a report he had given at the border with Honduras, he said there was rain.

- Handover at border -

At dusk on Sunday, Arriaza had arrived at the border, where his Honduran counterparts handed over Coto.

Coto was arrested earlier in the day while "driving with a human trafficker to the United States" before being handed over to Salvadorean authorities through Interpol, according to Honduran Security Minister Gustavo Sanchez.

"We want to congratulate, acknowledge and thank you for this international operations maneuver that we are developing with the Republic of Honduras and other countries," Arriaza told state television, in what would be his last public statement.

President Nayib Bukele said he would ask for international assistance in investigating the crash.

"What happened cannot remain a mere 'accident', it must be investigated thoroughly and to the last consequences. We will ask for international assistance," Bukele wrote on X.

"Director Arriaza Chicas was a fundamental piece in bringing peace and security to our people," he said.

"We will investigate this to the end, but no one can bring back our national hero."

Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado said on X that his teams were doing everything possible "to speed up the rescue and identification of the victims."

Civil Protection tactical teams were on their way to the crash site to provide assistance, the service said on X.

Defense Minister Rene Francis Merino Monroy described Arriaza as "a strategist who changed the course of the (national police)."

"We will continue fulfilling the mission until we achieve the country you dreamed of," he wrote on X.

The president's brutal crackdown on gangs has drawn criticism from rights groups but has won him sky-high approval ratings, with supporters crediting him for returning a sense of normality to a violence-fatigued society.

© Agence France-Presse