The 421,500-dollar shipment, that included 780 handguns, 950 ammunition magazines and 150 pistol grip shotguns, was taken off a ship bound from the Canadian port of Vancouver to El Salvador on June 28, officials said.

"The arms were not military weapons and had been sent by a Chinese arms manufacturer from Shanghai to an arms dealer in El Salvador," Mike Milne of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection told AFP.

"There is no indication that this weapons shipment was in any way linked to terrorism or to any military or para-military group -- it was a private deal," he said.

A suspicious 20-foot container that turned out to be filled with the guns and ammunition was taken off the ship Nordstrand in the west coast port of Portland, Oregon last week as it wended its way to Central America.

Officials became suspicious of the container because the cargo manifest indicated it was carrying frozen trout, while the shipper was an arms manufacturer and the recipient a gun dealer, officials said.

They removed the container from the ship on June 28 and then formally seized it Wednesday after confirming with the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department that no permit existed to ship the weapons.

"Since September 11, 2001, the United States has tightened up scrutiny of all cargo passing through the United States even if it is not destined for this country to prevent any sort of terrorist attack," Milne said.

In addition to the cache of handguns, ammunition and pistol-grip shotguns seized, US authorities also detained some 300 standard pump-action shotguns that were also in the shipment.

Officials declined to identify either the shipper or the consignee of the cargo of weapons, but said they appeared to have been intended for private use.

WAR.WIRE