http://www.localnewswatch.com

Mexican seeks U.S. help on arms trade
Staff and agencies
04 August, 2006


By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY - Mexico‘s top organized crime prosecutor called on U.S. officials Thursday to do more to halt illegal weapons trafficking to help Mexico stem a wave of bloody, drug-fueled violence.

"It‘s foreseeable that this type of violence will continue like this," Santiago Vasconcelos told a small group of foreign reporters, "because the Mexican government will never make any deals" with drug gangs.

The two alliances have begun using heavier weapons, like rocket-propelled grenades, Santiago Vasconcelos said. Most of those weapons come from the United States, and he called on Washington to do more to halt their flow south.

"The last time we spoke with (U.S. officials), we told them ... ‘If these types of weapons weren‘t flowing through, they‘d have to use stones to attack each other,‘" he said.

"It‘s worrisome, it‘s historic, this is the first time we‘ve seen that quantity of cocaine ... we have not seen such flights since the jets used by Amado," he said, referring to Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a drug lord known as "Lord of the Skies" for smuggling huge amounts of cocaine aboard jets in the 1990s.