SAN SALVADOR, Sept 9, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - 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.

Police Commissioner General 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.

"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 kilometres (112 miles) east of the capital San Salvador, the military said on social media platform X.

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

Police said the deputy director of investigations, Romulo Pompilio Romero, and another officer, Corporal Abel Antonio Arevalo, were killed the crash.

The state-run Canal 10 TV channel said David Cruz, head of communications for the Justice Ministry, was also killed.

Authorities have not identified the crew of the aircraft.

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.

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."

Defence Minister Rene Francis Merino Monroy described Arriaza Chicas 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.

Bukele ordered all flags in the country, as well as in El Salvador's embassies and consulates, to fly at half-mast for three days in honor of Arriaza Chicas.

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.

Coto had been on the run for allegedly embezzling around $35 million.
He was arrested in Honduras on Sunday while "driving with a human trafficker to the United States" before being handed over to Salvadorean authorities through Interpol, Honduran security minister Gustavo Sanchez said on X.