 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | May 2007 
More US Guns Flow to Mexican Cartels
 Sean Holstege - The Arizona Republic
A weapon seized after a drug-war massacre at a Mexican border town last week was purchased in Phoenix, in another sign that southbound gunrunning and the firepower of drug cartels have accelerated in the last few months.
It's a shared problem. Often guns smuggled south are used to smuggle drugs and people north.
The resulting violence, and fear that it will spill more onto U.S. soil, has led the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to make curbing gunrunning in the southwest a top priority. And the issue has led to unparalleled international cooperation.
"There is a war going on on the border between two cartels. What do they need to fight that war? Guns. Where do they get them? From here," said William Newell, special agent in charge of the Phoenix division of ATF.
Last week, 22 people died near the Sonora mining town of Cananea. Drug smugglers executed four police, fled into the mountains and shot it out with Mexican federal authorities in an ensuing day-long battle.
Newell expects the ongoing investigation to reveal that more weapons in the attack were purchased in Arizona.
Cananea wasn't the first high-profile spasm of violence in Mexican borderlands in which Arizona guns were found. Nor will it be the last. Other cases include the arrest of a cartel assassin and the slaying of a high-ranking intelligence officer.
"The level of violence I am seeing in Mexico today, especially along the border states, is eerily familiar to what I saw in Colombia with the Cali cartel in the heyday of Pablo Escobar," said Newell, who was stationed in Colombia in the mid 1990s.
Newell also said he's seen the most serious commitment in Mexico to tackling the gun and drug problem in his nearly 20-year career. That is leading to Mexican and U.S. law enforcers quickly sharing information about immediate or imminent threats or crimes.
Cartel operatives flood Arizona to buy semi-automatic assault rifles, grenades, plastic explosives and rocket launchers in bulk. All are used to fight rival drug smugglers and the Mexican government, according to U.S. court records and criminal investigation reports.
"These are the same weapons you see on the battlefields of Iraq," ATF Special Agent Tom Mangan said.
Mexican gunrunners exploit loopholes in state gun laws and capitalize on the strictness in Mexico. Guns claim triple the price in Mexico as in the United States because the permits there cost about $1,500 and require the holder to surrender rights against search and seizure.
The 2004 expiration of the U.S. federal assault weapons ban left some states, including Arizona and Texas, with no prohibition against a person buying an unlimited number of semi-automatic rifles at once without paperwork. Federal law requires licensed dealers to report multiple sales of handguns, but not rifles.
Anyone allowed to buy a gun can sell it, as long as the buyer isn't known to be a felon or otherwise precluded from buying a gun. By law, the seller can't seek a living from such sales. So at Arizona gun shows, it's common to see vendors, who are unlicensed dealers, describe large volumes of guns as private collections.
In nine ATF investigations of unlicensed dealers last year, agents seized 687 firearms and $45,000 in cash. Investigators found evidence that an additional 2,300 guns were sold, and they found one receipt for $150,000. One of the local dealers had been selling guns for 20 years without a license.
ATF cannot provide numbers on how many guns get sold illegally or where they go. But Newell estimates that about half of guns sold illegally in Arizona wind up in Mexico.
Smugglers will pay U.S. citizens $50 to $100 per gun to buy weapons on their behalf. In one case, Mexican gunrunners repeatedly hired people staying at a homeless shelter, undercover investigators said.
The gunrunners often bribe Mexican border agents, who guarantee the smuggler is waved through the inspection booth. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us