But, the ATF's "sell guns to cartels and then maybe try to catch them if we've got time" plan actually dates back to the Bush Administration. They're probably gonna go to super-prison for that. Puerto Vallarta, a tourist mecca now in the hands of the Narcos At one point, it was probably four to five of these rifles a week. "Their goal is the bulk purchase of maximum firepower.". California gun-control activists credited that state's low total to strict state firearms laws that severely limit sales of military-style weaponry. The M82 guns, often fitted with a scope to act as snipers weapon, can fire 70 rounds per minute with a maximum range of 2,500 meters. We had a bunch of light machine guns, like an M249 SAW what caught me off guard is that he and I shot the crap about that one day. The government accuses gun makers and suppliers of knowingly flooding the market with firearms attractive to drug cartels. The sheriff believes cartel coyotes are making between $1,000 and $1,500 for every person brought into the country. In Michoacn, the global powerhouse Crtel Jalisco Nueva Generacin, or CJNG, has been engaged in a long and deadly battle with Sinaloa and other rival cartels. A Dallas man claimed he didn't knowassault rifles, pistols and ammunitionwere hidden in his silver SUV as he attempted to cross into Mexico from Laredo, Texas. Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images News/Getty Images. This article would have you believe the American guns are coming from civilian sources.. one point left out of the article is that the cartels also like American hand grenades. 6 Ugly Things I Learned Selling Guns To Drug Cartels So, in 2006, they started experimenting with "gunwalking," essentially letting the cartels smuggle guns into Mexico so they could track them down and catch them. For those who never heard about this story. After paying the piso and traveling throughCoahuila, Diaz still wouldhave faced a 14-hour drive south toMichoacn. Did they buy ammo? Mexican Crime, American Guns - ABC News Mexican Cartels Are Arming Themselves to the Teeth With Powerful US Why doesnt it stop guns from going through their border into Mexico? The Medellin cartel surged to power in the 1980s. Drug cartels have the flashiest of weapons in their arsenal - Chron Vasquez'sattorney, Silverio Martinez, said he plans to lobby for leniency, even probation, arguing this is his client's first arrest. We were placing special orders with Barrett because we couldn't keep up demand. Mexican drug cartels armed with sniper rifles that can take down DEA agents say the cartel was trying to instill fear in its enemies and woo new members. Your selective quoting left out California being the source of Tijuanas American weapons (which is but a small minority of total weapons used down there, not that the article mentions that relevant fact). But, one boy was a white boy who told me he had served. Mexico Sues Gun Companies in U.S., Accusing Them of Fueling Violence Mexico has very strict restrictions on weapon. Weapons used by Sinaloa Cartel sicarios in Culiacn, Mexico - Armament He expected to be paid anadditional $5,000 once the guns were delivered toMichoacn, Mexico, according to court records. ", The Barrett is a rifle with almost no practical criminal uses. There must be a mistake. Have a story to share with Cracked? "But we also know most of the violence the Mexican government is concerned about against police and against institutions is coming from CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel" run by the notorious kingpin "El Chapo,"Lestrange said. Once inside the U.S., Century Arms converts the rifles into military-style AK-47s capable of holding 30-round magazines. See I figured they were big fans of German guns, going back to that huge illegal arms contract HK won for the cartels awhile back. The problem isnt cartels sneaking (civilian) guns from the U.S. Hundreds of firearms on display before being destroyed at . The Hearst survey parallel the findings of a Violence Policy Center report from 2009 documenting 21 gun-trafficking court cases involving 1,700 weapons funneled to Mexico, as well as a federal law enforcement report this year, based on 2,921 guns recovered in Mexico and traced to original U.S. purchases between December 2006 and November 2010. A Draco, purchased in Joshua, Texas, near Forth Worth, was used in the attack and shooting death of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico in February. "The majority of weapons we've seized since we started this operation have been in the corridor by Laredo, Texas from Laredo to El Paso," he said. But the weapons that Hernandez and his associates purchased ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartel pistoleros, including the Bushmaster .223 that was later used to kill four police officers and three secretaries in Acapulco. https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/law-enforcement-sources-gun-used-paris-terrorist-attacks-came-phoenix/. Excuse the pun, but when are you gonna pull the trigger on this? ", Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images, "Once the ATF was more involved, we had a separate set of paperwork. Are insane ticket costs pricing Astros fans out of Opening Day? The M82 can easily penetrate bulletproof vests, concrete walls and even tanks, says its manufacturer Barrett Firearms. It would help gangs and cartels to increase their presence and elevate homicide and crime rates in the U.S. As troll names go, yours is especially stupid. Get the best of Cracked sent directly to your inbox! floating around in pictures. Straw purchases for others are a violation of federal firearms law. To lose that many military, cops, politicians and citizens murdered by gangsters is phenomenal. Guns and munitions confiscated to alleged Mexican drug dealers Alberto Sanchez Hinojosa aka "El Tony", Francisco Arteaga Espino and Leonel Cruz Hernandez are displayed to the press in Mexico City on September 7, 2008. Viewers see this group of teenagers create their own drug organization. A straw purchase is when someone buys a gun legally, but then hands it over illegally to another person. Under tight security, an anonymous New York federal court jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict in the drug trafficking case against ex-Public Security Secretary Genaro Garca Luna. Its a weapon of war, added the official. The gun should not be in the hands of civilians, the official said. It fires the same round as the AK-47 but is significantly shorter and easier to conceal. I'm a projects reporter, examining key education topics and other local issues. Its compactness makes it easy to conceal and some versions can hold a 30-round magazine, made of lightweight polymer. He pulls a paper bag out, takes out 10 grand in cash rubber-banded in thousand dollar increments. Gunmen who left behind at least one M82riflewere seen spraying the armor-plated car ofpolicechief Omar Garcia Harfuch with high-velocity rounds. GREENVILLE, S.C. . 2. Mayor: HISD has two optionsclose school or be taken over, Rare photos show 2 ocelots crossing South Texas road, Willie Nelson pays lovely tribute to another country legend. Where does Mexico really get its guns? | Fox News As far as American guns being the best. A roster of convicted cartel members, ex-smugglers and former Mexican officials testified that Garca Luna took millions of dollars in cartel cash, met with major traffickers and kept law. Its just to easy to buy up second hand guns and ship them to Mexico. Theyre American-made guns, Sotomayor told the Union-Tribune. From 2006 to 2013, the program expanded until it exploded into the stupidly named "Fast And Furious" scandal. June 23, 2022, 4:35 PM. Even the much worshiped pre-64 Winchester Model 70s were laughed at by the Europeans when they were first marketed even though the pre-war guns were not all that bad but workmanship after WWII went down rapidly at Winchester. Central District of California | Indictment Names Six in Scheme to Latin American criminal gangs have embraced social media and messaging platforms to spread narco culture and sell drugs. So, the ATF was like, "We'll show you! He claimed he didn't know the names of the gun buyers or their cartel affiliations. The weapons are sold to the cartels, often for three or four times the original price. And then paperwork started. California, by contrast, accounted for 90 guns, three percent of the total. It is also one of the weapons of choice for drug cartels, according to the. Called a "technical" by US military.) Now, he's militarized the country. There is strict gun control in Mexico despite the fact that bearing arms is constitutionally protected. Drug Cartels: 5 Most Powerful in the World | Desert Hope A gun that can shoot through tanks is pretty useful for that. Christ, John; do a little digging please, since this article is easily refuted/debunked, American and Mexican law enforcement officials say nearly all of the gun violence in Mexico is fueled by the illicit import and sale of U.S. firearms. By Ioan Grillo Bloomsbury: 400 pages, $28 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org . AP/Eduardo Verdugo. It got to the point where we would give the ATF our cellphone numbers. No it could not be right. Then, he says, 'Oh, I've been interested in the Barrett.' Court documents show such purchasers buying as many as 20 AK-47s at a time, paying as much as $11,000 in cash. Thirty-four. These Are The Twitter Accounts Of The Sons Of Mexico's Drug Cartel Leaders All Rights Reserved, Fed raises interest rates by 0.5%, the highest rise since 2000, Here are the 14 inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The underground trade of weapons to Mexico is worth hundreds of millions of dollars annuallywith American guns used to kill tens of thousands of Mexicans each year. PDF OPTIONS FOR U.S. AND MEXICAN POLICY-MAKERS - The Institute of Politics But, gradually, their suspicions began to pile up " then, we started getting more and more phone calls over the weeks. Meanwhile, check out this picture of a gun cache from El Chapo's hide-out: That's a Barrett .50 caliber rifle, confirmed to have gotten to Mexico via the ATF's gun-running program. It is also the native land ofruthless Mexican cartel bossRubn Oseguera Cervantes,a top U.S. target with a $10 million reward for information on his whereabouts. And he didn't want any ammo for it or any optics for it. Two of those weapons were tracked to the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent: The whole mess immediately became an embarrassment for the Obama administration. Mexico is suing US gun makers, arguing that millions of American guns have illegally flowed across the border and fueled homicide rates. of violence in this conflict: intra-cartel disputes, inter-cartel rivalries, and the overall war that Mexican President Felipe Caldern's government is waging on the cartels. How U.S. Formed by ex-military men who became armed enforcers for the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas split with their former patrons nearly three years ago and have since become one of Mexico's largest and most . btw (PS, you may want to arm your Civilians so they can fight the cartel) ", Well, worry not, James, because the victims were mostly-, "And it's not gonna feel any better if I hear about some village in Mexico getting wiped out.". Cant have all those firearms in the USA, so lets pipeline them to Mexico. Automatic guns and rocket-propelled grenades follow drug trade routes back to China, Guatemala, and the black markets in Central and South America. Debt Collector and Drug Distributor for Cartel Connected, Violent, Drug Pass a domestic terrorism bill. It costs between $8,000 and $10,000, and it can literally put a bullet through most light tanks. Explain again how the two assists are not in prison for supplying weapons to know criminals that used the weapons to kill US citizens. Some of the reasons so many guns come from Texas: people can cross the border on land or by theRio Grande River, and"in places like Houston and San Antonio, theres a gun store on every corner, said Will Glaspy, formerly in charge of DEA's Houston Division. Answer (1 of 16): There a ton of AK and Russian type military machine guns (I've seen a Russian equivalent 12.6 MM of the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a truck. A jury didn't believe him,convictingJose RafaelVasquez last month of attempting to smuggle goods out of the country. So same basic rules as slinging coffee at Starbucks, only with slightly higher stakes if somebody doesn't buy your fake smile. They also discoveredmore than 10,000 rounds of ammunition hidden in an ice chest in the gas tankand inside the spare tire,court records show. National Police Chief Gen. Oscar Naranjo, holds a handgun seized to Colombian drug lord and former paramilitary leader Pedro Guerrero Castillo, known as "Cuchillo" (Knife), as he speaks during a press conference in Bogota, Colombia, on December 29, 2010. 2- Declare Antifa a domestic terror organization. https://tucson.com/news/national/mexican-drug-cartels-using-grenades/article_9bafe2d8-ecf2-5925-8e85-167e066dd2e9.html. Sincerely, When he entered office in 2006, Caldern immediately moved on the cartels. Earlier in the week, more than one . Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out another How To Solve The Country's Gun Problem, and watch other videos you won't see on the site! Scarface stars Pacino as the indelible gangster and charts his rise as a Cuban immigrant-turned-cocaine cartel captain . NUEVO LAREDO, MexicoOn March 24 . Another solid reason for the U.S. to pass universal back ground checks. Mexican drug cartel threatens to kill TV reporter - BBC News (Hollie McKay/Fox News) Moreover, a total of 28,741 recovered weapons . But, who gave the arms to the Mexican cartels? So Ive just one question for you. Other than "buying the same $10,000 gun multiple times" and "paying in whale-choking bundles of cash," there was nothing particularly shady about the dudes making these straw purchases. Why Mexico Is Right to Sue U.S. Mexico targets US arms dealers for supplying weapons to Mexican drug Together the men funneled nearly 340 firearms valued at almost $370,000 to Mexican drug cartels. More than 40 people have been charged in the Upstate of South Carolina as part of a drug-trafficking case known as "Las Seoritas," according to Attorney General Alan Wilson . Mexico's drug war fought with drones, human shields, gunships Where do Mexican drug cartels get their guns? Often, the United States 1 Make rioting in public while wearing a mask a felony with mandatory prison time. I came here to say this. Gun-rights advocates doubt the accuracy of that claim. If someone is breaking the law, go after them. Earlier this month, theMexican government sued U.S. gun manufacturers in federal court, accusing them of fueling the violence. Would they be interested in Hello Kitty grips or SpongeBob sights? In the past, Jalisco has obtained squad machine guns, .50-caliber sniper rifles and 40mm grenades and launchers. ), We want USA to be majority white! Build the wall, Mexico. Distraction. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Weapons and jewelry seized to alleged leader of "El Cartel del Golfo" Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, aka "El Coss", are presented to the press in Mexico City, on September 13, 2012. An estimated 19% came from California, 15%from Arizona and 25% from other states. You never cease to make an absolute fool of yourself. They want the firearms only in the hands they want so that they can execute their plan. It is also one of the weapons of choice fordrugcartels, according to theMexicangovernment, which this week filed a lawsuit in theUS District Court in Massachusetts against the company and 10 other gun manufacturers. If you have a Barrett, it means that any non-special forces such as the localpoliceand the municipalpolicecannot fight you, Grandmaison said. Criminal organizations operating in Tamaulipas, Guerrero, and Jalisco were the most armed in the country, at least in the last year. *awkward shrug*, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images. Theres a little bit of The Dude in a lot of Jeff Bridges performances. Man, how awful am I gonna feel if one of these guys gets plugged with a weapon I sold? Soldiers stand guard around a presentation of arms captured in an operation against the Gulf cartel in Mexico City, Friday, Nov. 7, 2008. Never mind that the majority of the cartels armament needs are met by leaks of official weaponry bought by the Mexican military. In any case, "the trace itself doesn't tell you anything,"' said Lawrence Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Newtown, Conn.-based firearms industry trade group. Oh, surprise, surprise, who was AG of California when this was happening?? That's the NRA position.". The arrests on January 19 are the result of Operation Semper Infidelis, a Los Angeles Strike Force investigation that targeted a domestic weapons trafficking organization that provided firearms and ammunition to the Crtel Jalisco Nueva Generacin (CJNG), one of the largest and most violent drug cartels in Mexico. Body armour and load-bearing equipment were used by many cartel members, including examples marked 'Marina' (Marines) or 'Polica Estatal' (State Police). Fake News. Then, basic questions: Did you feel they knew what they were buying? A 9mm browning pistol has the diamond encrusted initials of LMJ. Enough-time for real action. The place is called La Leche and it continues to be one of Vallarta's tourist attractions. No, they published this piece in an effort to get the US Congress to tighten Americas gun control laws, ostensibly to stop the alleged flow of guns to Mexico. The flow of high-caliber arms smuggled across the porous U.S. border has alarmed Mexican officials and few weapons are as powerful as the U.S.-made M82 semi-automatic rifle increasingly favored by . The survey drawn from guns identified by manufacturer or importer in U.S. court documents from 44 cases involving 165 defendants in Texas, Arizona and three other states shows the purveyors of guns to Mexican drug traffickers followed a time-honored maxim of product salesmanship: Bigger is definitely better. ", Your elite government task force in action, everybody: "Guess we just gave the bad guys a buncha weapons." If American made guns are somehow responsible for all this killing by the evil people using them, why do you allow them to enter your country so easily? Then, they were let go, because what they had done hadn't been illegal -- they hadn't seen a hand off. Among Mexican traffickers, it has earned itself the nickname "cuerno de chivo" or "goat horn" because of its distinctive banana-shaped magazine. Modern optics, including AimPoint types and the distinctive Vism ECO 434 model were seen. Based in northwest Mexico's Sinaloa state, the Sinaloa Cartel is widely considered to be the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the Western Hemisphere, according to Insight Crime. The bridge connectsEagle Pass, Texas, to the Northern Mexicocity of Piedras Negras in the state of Coahuila. Of course, thats not primary the message Newsweek and the mainstream media (not to mention Mexican officials) want readers to take away from their report. Pre-order it now! The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives contends the most popular are the FN-57 pistol, once nicknamed the cop-killer for the ammo it could fire; the AR type 223 rifle and the. The US rifle loved by drug cartels and feared by Mexican police MEXICO: Stop the flow of Immigrants going north and maybe we will do something about guns going south across the border. Moodys says these cities may see prices drop up to 10%. We know theyre being illegally trafficked through California into Tijuana.. Weapons such as the M82 are part of a torrent of illegal arms flowing south, Mexico alleges, partly due to the manufacturers negligent business practices that had encouraged illegal arms trafficking. For more insider perspectives, check out 5 Insane Things I Learned About Drugs As An Undercover Agent and 6 Ways Life In Cartel-Run Mexico Is Nothing Like You Imagine. The cartels then use their members or contract with associates to serve as"consolidators.". The Insider: Reggie Yates - Episode 2: Mexican Army: War Against Powerful and Violent Drug Cartels | Crime DocumentaryThe Insider: Reggie Yates - Episode 1: . 24 of 29 25 of 29 A handgun covered with gold and money sized to alleged financial agent of the drug "Cartel . Officials found 17 handguns in his car. A Hearst Newspapers survey of 1,600 guns purchased mostly in Texas and Arizona which were either shipped to Mexico or intercepted en route shows the Bushmaster .223 AR-15 ranks second among firearms apparently used in drug warfare. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Pass universal background checks, end loopholes: gunshow and Charleston. "Almost all guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico 70% to 90% of them were trafficked from the U.S.," the Mexican government claims in its complaint. Last week, the Treasury sanctioned two Mexican businessmen and four Sinaloa Cartel members in connection with the illicit methamphetamine and fentanyl trade. Id gut all weapons law and send any politician that suggest a new gun law to GitMo with a mandatory minimum sentence of life. Since joining the Tulsa World in 1999, I have been a three-time winner of Oklahoma's top award for investigative . If not, they should be left alone. There, members oftheGulf Cartel and CJNGhave formed a partnership, Jones said. We can reduce the carnage if pols have the guts to act, Eric Holder (@EricHolder) August 5, 2019, Enough-time for real action.
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