Arming the Drug Wars

[one...two...tree 2,762]

...most of the guns that do the killing—Colt .38 Supers and big-bore Barrett rifles among them—keep pouring in from the U.S.

by James Verini, Portfolio.com

Alfredo Beltrán Leyva was arrested on January 21 in Culiacán, capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The circumstances of his arrest lived up to his high standing in Mexico’s criminal underground, caught, as he was, driving a BMW S.U.V. in which federal police found eight pistols, an AK-47 assault rifle, and two suitcases containing about $900,000 in cash. Until his arrest, Beltrán Leyva was a top lieutenant in what may be the most profitable and far-reaching drug-trafficking organization in the world: the Sinaloa cartel, presided over by Joaquín Guzmán, often referred to as Mexico’s Pablo Escobar. Beltrán Leyva—known as El Mochomo after a vicious night-crawling ant—is thought by police to have been a Guzmán favorite, carrying out multiple murders while moving tons of drugs and millions of dollars for him.

The day after Beltrán Leyva’s arrest, federal police raided two mansions in Mexico City. They nabbed 11 members of his hit squad and discovered an arsenal including dozens of high-powered rifles, fragmentation grenades, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and Kevlar vests stamped FEDA. The police believe this stands for Fuerzas Especiales de Arturo, or Arturo’s Special Forces, a reference to Alfredo’s older brother, who ranks even higher in Guzmán’s organization.

One of the pistols taken from Beltrán Leyva’s truck was an American-built, silver-plated Colt .38 Super, long the preferred firearm of aesthetically inclined narco­traficantes. Originally made in the 1920s, the .38 is an iconic gun, with a sleek rectangular barrel, angled handle, and forward-thrusting look that give it a certain élan. Custom models like Beltrán Leyva’s can go for $10,000. A monogrammed, emerald-encrusted .38 Super that belonged to one infamous drug lord now resides in a Mexican museum. (View slideshow.)

Guns are nearly impossible to buy legally in Mexico, so when the Beltrán Leyva haul was brought into federal police headquarters in Mexico City, agents sent serial numbers to the American embassy. There, they were fed into eTrace, a network created by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the agency that investigates arms trafficking, and the information emerged seconds later at the A.T.F.’s National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The center receives more than 800 trace requests a day. Each usually takes two weeks to process, but in an urgent situation, one can be performed in a day or less.

...

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/inte...exico-Gun-Trade

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The U.S. Fuels Mexico’s Drug Wars

By Jim Hightower

The United States is scolding Mexico. Again.

Washington officials are expressing alarm that Mexico’s government is at risk of a “rapid and sudden collapse” because it is losing control of its territory to drug cartels, allowing drug-gang violence to spread out of control.

The drug problem most certainly is real. Mexico’s cartels are now the number one suppliers of illegal drugs into our country, and the rising flow of drug money into Mexico is already the fourth largest source of that country’s income. As assorted kingpins vie for control of the trade, horrific violence has erupted, not only targeting rival gangs, but also top government officials, the military, police, businesses bystanders, and others. More than 6,000 Mexicans were gunned down in these wars last year, with many of them having been tortured, beheaded, and otherwise brutalized.

What a gruesome mess, you might say — why don’t the Mexicans clean up their drug problem?

Start with this: It’s not their problem. Americans — not Mexicans — are the ones snorting the tons of narcotics being trafficked by the gangs. Our demand drives the trade, finances the kingpins, and promotes the carnage. Yet, rather than confronting our people’s addiction for what it is — a health issue — U.S. authorities continue to pretend they can stop the supply, spending billions each year on failed police actions.

As for the hellish slaughter, where do you think the gangs get the guns? Mexico has strict gun laws, prohibiting its citizens from buying the high-powered assault weapons the cartels are using. So 90 percent of their weaponry is coming from U.S. gun dealers — more than 6,000 of whom operate just on our side of the line. With a wink and a nod, they brazenly sell tens of thousands of these guns to be smuggled across the border.

Mexico supplies the drugs, but our country supplies the customers, the money, and the guns. Their war is our war.

http://egpnews.com/?p=8350

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

U.S. invests to keep arms smugglers out of Mexico

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - New money to monitor U.S. traffic entering Mexico and detect gun smugglers will be spent on scanners for inspecting trucks as well as communication equipment, the U.S. government said on Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters in San Diego that $400 million would be spent on infrastructure and equipment to improve security at New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and California border crossings.

Last week, the Obama administration announced plans to crack down on the smuggling of guns and money pouring south from the United States into Mexico that are helping fuel violence by Mexican drug cartels.

Mexico checks only a fraction of the traffic entering from the United States but has promised to crack down.

Part of the funding, which had been previously announced, will go toward more dog teams at border crossings.

"These are canines trained to sniff out weapons and cash ... a very helpful adjunct to manpower and other resources we are putting into southwest border efforts," Napolitano said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Mexico last week and said U.S. drug users were responsible for much of the violence ripping through Mexico as cocaine smuggling gangs battle over turf.

The United States and Mexico have agreed to work together to quell a surge in drug gang killings that left more than 6,300 last year and that has raised fears of a serious spillover into the United States.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/i...E5310M420090402

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Brady Campaign Urges Obama to Emphasize Stronger Gun Laws

By The Brady Campaign , To Prevent Gun Violence - March 31, 2009

Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke released the following statement in response to the Obama Administration proposal to help combat the Mexican drug war by spending nearly $800 million and supplying additional law enforcement resources to the border:

“We agree with the Administration that law enforcement needs additional resources to help fight gun violence in Mexico and here at home, but this problem can not be solved just by spending more money. We need to address the fact that weak, nearly nonexistent, American gun laws make it too easy for Mexican gun traffickers and other dangerous people to get American guns.

“It makes little sense to spend millions to try to intercept cars with their trunks loaded with guns before they get to Mexico, while doing nothing to prevent the guns from being loaded into those cars and trunks in the first place. It makes little sense to allow traffickers to buy truckloads of assault weapons in Texas and Arizona, and then spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to find these guns before they cross the border.”

“We should enact stronger laws like extending Brady background checks to all sales at gun shows, limiting large volume sales of guns that fuel trafficking, giving federal law enforcement greater legal authority to crack down on corrupt gun dealers, banning military-style weapons that have become the tools of the trade for the drug cartels, and repealing the Tiahrt Amendments that make enforcement of current gun laws more difficult.”

“It is good to credit the courage of the Mexican government for taking on the drug gangs.? Now we need our elected officials to show some courage themselves by standing up to the gun lobby and passing the gun laws the American people and our friends to the South so desperately need.”

Last week, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence released a new report, Exporting Gun Violence: How Our Weak Gun Laws Arm Criminals in Mexico and America. It documents how Mexican drug gangs have exploited weak American gun laws and corrupt American gun sellers to amass arsenals of guns that have killed thousands and pose an increasingly grave security threat to Mexico, and the U.S.? The report is available at www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/reports/exporting-gun-violence.pdf.

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opin...ronger-gun-laws

[Ban Hammer 13,355]

.38 super

[natty bumppo 297]

Can't wait for Mexico to release serial numbers of ALL captured firearms.

Until that day ... Mexico is selling a bridge.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Can't wait for Mexico to release serial numbers of ALL captured firearms.

Until that day ... Mexico is selling a bridge.

If drugs can be smuggled into the U.S. , why can't you believe that weapons are being smuggled into Mexico?

[natty bumppo 297]

Can't wait for Mexico to release serial numbers of ALL captured firearms.

Until that day ... Mexico is selling a bridge.

If drugs can be smuggled into the U.S. , why can't you believe that weapons are being smuggled into Mexico?

firearms have serial numbers ... drugs don't :bonk:

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Can't wait for Mexico to release serial numbers of ALL captured firearms.

Until that day ... Mexico is selling a bridge.

If drugs can be smuggled into the U.S. , why can't you believe that weapons are being smuggled into Mexico?

firearms have serial numbers ... drugs don't :bonk:

Guns are going to Mexico, but they are not being smuggled in the trunks of citizen's cars, as the Brady folks would have you believe. Gangs like MS-13 buy used guns from people that don't transfer them properly, and outright steal them. Those guns make a return trip along the path the drugs came in on.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md/Public-Affair...nGunCharge.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

To add: While not required by law in all jurisdictions, a responsible gun owner should just for his own piece of mind, and release of liability, make the transfer through his local law enforcement agency, for the very minimum of making sure that tranfer is recorded somewhere.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

To add: While not required by law in all jurisdictions, a responsible gun owner should just for his own piece of mind, and release of liability, make the transfer through his local law enforcement agency, for the very minimum of making sure that tranfer is recorded somewhere.

Wait...Natty are you listening?

[natty bumppo 297]

To add: While not required by law in all jurisdictions, a responsible gun owner should just for his own piece of mind, and release of liability, make the transfer through his local law enforcement agency, for the very minimum of making sure that tranfer is recorded somewhere.

Wait...Natty are you listening?

your point? ... FAIL

Through a local LEO? They carry 4473's? Contact NCIS? Determine original legal ownership? Record and maintain records of transactions?

Edited April 3, 2009 by Natty Bumppo

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Natty, you're being deliberately ignorant or incredibly naive. If criminals in the U.S. manage to get their hands on guns, then why don't you think that guns can be smuggled into Mexico? For someone who is always touting that criminals will always find ways of getting guns, you sure are being stubborn in recognizing that guns can and do get smuggled into Mexico from the states.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Mister Fancypants

[natty bumppo 297]

Natty, you're being deliberately ignorant or incredibly naive. If criminals in the U.S. manage to get their hands on guns, then why don't you think that guns can be smuggled into Mexico? For someone who is always touting that criminals will always find ways of getting guns, you sure are being stubborn in recognizing that guns can and do get smuggled into Mexico from the states.

I asked direct questions ... please respond with answers to those questions.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Natty Bumppo

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Natty, you're being deliberately ignorant or incredibly naive. If criminals in the U.S. manage to get their hands on guns, then why don't you think that guns can be smuggled into Mexico? For someone who is always touting that criminals will always find ways of getting guns, you sure are being stubborn in recognizing that guns can and do get smuggled into Mexico from the states.

I asked direct questions ... please respond with answers to those questions.

Sorry...I don't speak gun geek. My argument above is made from pure logic.