Thousands of firearms manufactured or bought in the U.S.

end up being used in crimes in Central America, according to an audit released last week that found about half of the weapons are smuggled into the region and the others are exported legally and “diverted” into criminals’ hands.

GAO investigators examined 27,240 requests that those countries submitted to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for tracing from 2015 to 2019.

ATF found about 40% of the weapons were manufactured in the U.S.

Pistols are the pick of street gangs such as MS-13 and 18th Street, which carry out killings and extortion in urban areas of the Central American countries.

Rifles are more popular with drug traffickers, who use AR-15 or AK-47-style weapons to protect drug shipments, the GAO said.

While the migrants travel north, the administration says, U.S.-sourced weapons stream south.

From 2015 to 2019, American taxpayers sent $3 million to the four countries to help destroy weapons stockpiles.

GAO recommended that the State Department coordinate with embassies and other government entities in the key countries to get a better sense of firearms trafficking.

The Central American nations don’t have exact data about firearms smuggling methods but believe most of them come across the land borders in the opposite direction of migrants.

Indeed, the largest single shipment of weapons seized by border authorities en route to one of the four countries was just 10 firearms.

GAO looked at U.S.-sourced weapons flowing to Mexico last year.

Mexico has filed a $10 billion lawsuit claiming American manufacturers knowingly facilitate the trafficking of weapons that end up in the hands of warring cartels, fueling violence that has seeped through the country in the past decade.