Posted on 01/04/2011 8:45:37 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
Convicted Houston gun trafficker offers tips on Mexico's Zetas
U.S. agents are armed with the secrets of a convicted Houston gunrunner, information that could lead them to top Mexican drug-cartel bosses and the Texas firearms dealers suppling high-powered weapons.
Christian Garza was sentenced to three years in federal prison as a result of a plea agreement that offered leniency in exchange for telling U.S. officials about his criminal contacts, according to court papers.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Wouldn’t want to be related to that guy...
Do I understand this correctly? Guns are being shipped to the cartels from the US? In the past some FReepers have argued this is not true.
“The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives contends Houston is the No. 1 spot of origin for weapons that have been traced from Mexican organized crime scenes back to the United States.”
Type and quantity are the key. I still don’t believe that they are getting automatic weapons from the U.S.. I never believe the ATF unless they have facts that can be proven in the open.
Unless a dealer is actually part of the Zetas I would say this is entirely BS. Why take a chance on smuggling semi-auto weapons across the US border when they have other supply routes that give them access to fully automatic weapons and ammunition?
In both this life and the next.
Never should have gotten into that kind of life and then contributing to the fall of others.
Williams stressed that his client was not a member of the Zetas and did not personally meet with any Zetas, nor take guns across the border.
300 is a small number of weapons in relation to those used by the cartel. Anything put out by the Houston Chronicle about weapons into Mexico is automatically suspect. The statistic about weapons from the U.S. to Mexico has been flagrantly miss-represented by the Obozo Admin., the ATF, and HS. Figures do not lie, but liars figure. No truth will come from this "administaration" only lies and intentional distortions (propaganda).
The ATF and US government lie by omission, as usual. What they don't tell you is the vast majority of semi auto and nearly all fully automatic weapons are "stolen" from the Mexican military and police (Mexican Government) who bought them from US sources with the blessing of the US government. The ATF doesn't mention that these weapons moved through the Mexican government to the narcos, and the media won't ask the details and "assumes" all the "machine guns" were purchased underground in the states and sent directly to the narcos.
A few are sold commercially in the US, and moved into the hands of the Mexican narco traffickers who, interestingly, leave them a crime scenes.
How convenient for the ATF, and the Marxists, another "crisis" that must be acted on without thinking.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
True. To believe that the US retail firearms market is the prime source of Mexican guns one must believe that Mexican drug dealers can’t do math. A semi-auto only, AR-pattern rifle retails in the US for ~$1500. This price does not include the costs involved in smuggling the weapon into Mexico or paying the US buyer/middle-man. It also does not include the cost to have a gunsmith convert the weapon to full-auto. (Virtually every news story I’ve seen on Mexican drug violence states that the weapons used were fully automatic.) I’m just guessing here, but the total cost of ownership for such a weapon is probably double the retail price.
On the other hand, fully automatic versions of the same gun are available from a number of sources for much less money. Do you really believe that the Mexican army can account for every M-16 in their inventory? How many could US$3000 buy you from a corrupt army clerk? And there are literally tons of full-auto weapons available in Central America; right along the cartels’ existing drug trade routes. These are leftovers from the Cold War. The US and the USSR shipped weapons to the region by the boat load. Those guns didn’t evaporate when the Berlin Wall fell.
Yes, some civilian arms from the US do make it to Mexico, but it’s hardly the “Iron River” that 0bama and Hillary(!) claim it is.
Exactly. The majority of firearms you’ll see in the press photos of the cache of weapons found tend to be AK-47 type. Not something the US makes, much less is available here (fully automatic). The only way any cartels get fully-automatic weapons from the US is stuff our government gives their government, which is then stolen/sold by their soldiers.
In terms of stufff actually sold at a local gun shop, the only thing they could get there at the same level of effectiveness is some shotguns/handguns. None of which are fully automatic. However, even for what they could get here and smuggle down, I’m sure there are plenty of other sources much easier to use and a lot cheaper than buying it in the US, then having to find a way to get it to Mexico.
US guns to Mexico? Today I heard a long program about research that found there were something like 14 gun dealers in the US to whom large numbers of criminally involved guns in Mexico have been traced. Apparently, legal dummy buyers get them and then provide them to illegal people who take them over the border.
I recently red a novel by Patterson (the Cross detective novels) in which a key part of the story was DC street punks using innocent parties to go to Virginia to buy guns to use for DC crimes.
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