Posted on 05/18/2009 5:19:13 AM PDT by ebiskit
Feds: Gun Smugglers Keep Cartels Heavily Armed An all-out war is raging in Mexico, and it is major news on both sides of the border. In 2008, 6,000 Mexicans were killed in gang warfare.
In the first two months of 2009, more than a thousand people were gunned down in Mexico as the government intensifies it's war to bring down the narcotrafficking cartels.
Mexican police officers are out-gunned by the firepower cartel gangsters are wielding, and bodies turn up tortured to death on the streets of Juarez and Tijuana on a regular basis.
In the most gruesome new terror tactic of the drug lords, beheaded, bullet-riddled bodies are dumped in public places or hung from overpasses.
The powerful drug cartels are packing far more firepower than the police and in some cases even rival the gun power of some Mexican army units.
Mexico may ship tons of cocaine, heroin meth and marijuana to the United States, but that country does not manufacture guns.
Estimates of the money Mexican drug lords pull in annually range from $17 billion to $38 billion a year.
With that wealth, the cartels are able to purchase millions of dollars in assault rifles, pistols, and explosives to continue their reign of terror on the populace, battle each other for control of territory and wage war against the Mexican government.
According to the ATF, many of the guns flooding Mexico and ensuring the cartels reign of ballistic terror are flowing south of the border from unscrupulous gun dealers in the U.S.
In 2008, 20,000 illegal weapons were seized by Mexican authorities, more than half of them high-powered assault rifles.
In April 2009, a high-ranking Mexican army general took John Walsh to a secret government warehouse in Tijuana to show AMW thousands of guns that have been siezed from the cartels.
Many of those guns were traced by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives back to gun dealers in border-states like Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, states which have relatively lax state laws on gun sales compared to many other states.
Agents working out of the border states, in major cities like Phoenix, San Diego and El Paso, have been busting middle men hired by the cartels to purchase guns in the U.S. from gun stores and individual dealers.
While most of the 7,000 gun dealers in the border states are honest, law-abiding folks, agents say a few shady ones knowingly sell large quantities of assault rifles and high-powered pistols to buyers whose sole intent is to smuggle the weapons across the border into Mexico for the cartels.
Mario Valdez-Valdez is wanted for allegely participating in a Phoenix-based conspiracy to purchase and provide weapons purchased in the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.
Agents say he was engaged in the gun running with with an alleged accomplice named Maruo Felix Ibarra.
Valdez fled before he could be indicted and has an outstanding warrant in the Superior Court of Maricopa County Arizona.
He is charged with Conspiracy, Ilegally Conducting an Enterprise, Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, Forgery and Misconduct Involving Weapons.
Valdez is a Mexican national who could be hiding in Mexico, or in the U.S.
Lets see what we can do tonight to put this myth to bed.
No mention was made that a preponderance of illegal Mexican guns are smuggled from South America & other black market originations. Nor was mentioned that Mexico only submits to the ATF, a white-washed list of recovered gun serial numbers. No mention of the numbers of stolen Mexican Army/Police guns that were expressly purchased by the US Government for use by Mexico in the WOD. Cited only were the incomplete numbers of the ATF that have been thoroughly debunked by FoxNews.
Were all quite painfully aware of the ATF's lack of observation for fact, logic & reason.
tahDeetz
The Drug Cartels have little interest in the pop guns you and I have access to.
They want, get, and use military weapons with full automatic capability.
If "many" were traced back to the US, then "five times 'many'" were NOT traced back to the US.
Yep. Why waste time on piecemeal smuggled across the border when they can get them by the containerload in Mexican ports.
California?
Lax state laws on gun sales?
Hah!
Still can’t figure out why any LAW ABIDING citizen in the USA can’t possess a full auto weapon without a special permit. Really pi$$es me off when you see pictures from other countries esp. Israel where “kids” walk into ice cream parlors with auto rifles slung over their shoulders and we can’t do that in the good ole USA.
Walsh is a bleeding heart liberal. Get on his phone lines and tie them up all day and put this nonsense to bed.
Just looked at a pic of some of those guns that were shown to Mr. Walsh. There were several HK G3 rifles (not available from the US), an Israeli modified 1919A4, A couple of Izmesh made AK-47’s from Russia (not available from the US). Of biggest note was the 8mm MG42. Definitely not from the US. Out of all the guns on display, only about 1/5 of them could have possibly come from the US.
You know, if the anti’s can’t tell the truth to promote their stance, then they need to STFU and FOAD. I’m tired of their outright lies attempting to subvert our Constitution. I can’t wait until the 2nd is incorporated under the 14th nationwide.
“he Drug Cartels have little interest in the pop guns you and I have access to.”
But the cartels, La Raza, Aztlan Nation, and the Mexican government all have an interest in civil disarmament in the United States, as do fascists in the USA.
And this story has the “high powered assult rifle” line in it. Where can I get one of these “high powered” carbines - mine aren’t “powered” enough! Maybe I should go to California where the gun laws are “lax.”
perhaps this is a syntax error on our part all this time...maybe you and I have “powered” assault rifles and those owned by the cartels are “high” powered assault rifles. must be from being around all the drugs...
Personally, I think it’s marvelous that they are knocking each other off. I have some empathy for innocents caught in the crossfire, but Mexicans have never been able to clean up their government—let alone organized gangsters.
I have no doubt there is a lot of ammo and light arms going south, but it really sounds like a border problem more than anything else. I also doubt all the good ole white boys as being the main culprits.
I believe that the H&K G3 is Mexico’s standard infantry rifle. Hmmmmmm!
Don’t sacrifice ANY rights in the name of this BS! FACT: The 2nd Amendment is SELF-incorporated to all government entities at every level. It is MORE ABSOLUTE than the 1st Amendment, or any of the others, because the wording forbids not only CONGRESS, but ANYONE from infringing on it. The 1st says “Congress shall make no law...”. The 2nd say “shall NOT be infringed!” Period! End of debate!
“In 2008, 20,000 illegal weapons were seized by Mexican authorities, more than half of them high-powered assault rifles.”
All of 17% of them came from the United States. Most came from either the Mexican military, or other countries besides the US. Not to mention that the cartels prefer full automatic weapons, not semi. ‘Assault rifles’ are used for very few crimes here, and many folks use them responsibly for fun and profit.
Typical antigun hitpiece. If you aren’t a member, join the NRA!
GOP 2010!
Just to clarify: you can only have full-auto IF you have a permit AND pay a per-item tax AND pay a stupidly high premium for what is essentially a transfer of rights AND are satisfied to do all that for a used item decades old. You can’t have ANY post-’86 MGs, you can only buy someone else’s right to an old one.
Therein lies the problem. Legalize the drugs and the profit would fall out. No profit, no drug wars, no call for gun control
Now I know I'll take some heat for that but whether you are for legalizing drugs or not, you have to admit it would go a long way in solving this problem.
But let's face it, our government isn't about solving problems, it's about creating them.
Here’s that FOX story
Most of the US made guns found in Mexico that are used by the cartels were probably manufactured and given to the Mexican military and police organizations, then ‘sold out the back door’ to the cartels by corrupt officials.
No serious drug cartel or paramilitary criminal group would have much interest in a US ‘street legal’, made for civilian use, firearm sold out of an American gun shop.
This propaganda doesn’t, or shouldn’t pass the smell test!
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