Thread: ATF takes aim at deep 'Iron river of guns'

ATF takes aim at deep 'Iron river of guns'

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Guns recovered in some of the largest recent weapons seizures in Mexico are being traced deep into the United States — miles from the volatile border — revealing an expanding trafficking network that feeds Mexico's violent drug cartels, according to government documents and U.S. investigators.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives records show 90% of the weapons recovered and traced originate from a growing number of sources spanning from the Northwest to New England. The trafficking routes have created what Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., described earlier this week as an "iron river of guns" flowing to the warring cartels, contributing to about 7,000 deaths in the past 14 months.

2,000 weapons a day

Some of the strongest recent evidence of the cartels' expanding gun pipeline:

• Four months after the largest weapons seizure in Mexican history, U.S. investigators have traced 383 of the more than 400 weapons seized from a stash house in Reynosa, Mexico, to 11 states including Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Michigan and Connecticut, according to ATF records.

• Nearly a year after a gunbattle left 13 dead in Tijuana, the seizure of 60 guns has prompted probes in Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Denver.

• The guns, many of them high-powered assault rifles, are streaming across the border at such a pace that some are being recovered in Mexico within days after their purchase in the U.S, according to ATF records.

One of the weapons in the Reynosa investigation — a 9mm handgun — was recovered 11 days after its purchase in the Houston area.

"Every time we open one of these cases, we are learning something new," said William Hoover of the ATF. The Reynosa seizure has spawned 25 to 30 ongoing trafficking investigations across the USA, he said.

Escalating violence in the battle to control the lucrative drug trade in Mexico has increased the demand for weapons, while the cost for firearms along the U.S. side of the border has soared, Hoover said. Those market forces drive traffickers far into the interior of the United States in search of new and cheaper supplies of firearms.

Denise Dresser, a political science professor at Mexico's Autonomous Institute of Technology, told a Senate panel Tuesday that up to 2,000 weapons per day flow into Mexico from the United States.

Many of the guns recovered in Mexico also are much more quickly used in crimes than is typical in U.S.-based gun investigations.

In the Reynosa seizure, U.S. investigators are focusing on about 120 weapons in which the time of a gun purchase to the time of recovery in a crime is half of the 10-year U.S. average. This includes newly purchased handguns and assault rifles, Hoover said.

"There is no doubt about it that the (drug-trafficking organizations) need firearms," he said. "Everybody knows the fight is on; everybody knows the pressure is being applied along the border."

Lawmakers join fight

That pressure, the ATF official says, is driving up gun prices in border states.

In Texas, for example, a used .45-caliber handgun may sell for about $750. North of the U.S. border states, Hoover says, the same gun may cost $350.

Within the past six months, Hoover says, a federal investigation revealed that traffickers were paying a flat fee of about $1,000 per gun, regardless of the type, to keep the flow of weapons moving.

Fearing increased spillover violence on the U.S. side of the border, federal lawmakers from border states, including Reps. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, and Harry Teague, D-N.M., on Wednesday introduced legislation that would provide $379 million in law enforcement aid aimed in part at slowing the gun-smuggling trade.

The proposal includes a plan to inspect vehicles traveling into Mexico from the United States.

It also includes $30 million for the ATF to expand its gun-smuggling investigations along the Southwestern border.

"The funding in this bill provides law enforcement with additional resources to aggressively go after the illegal gun smuggling that has fueled much of the violence along the border," Teague says.
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Private planes

Border agency draws fire for weapons traffic to Mexico

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I have serious dobts that the people buying and transporting these guns are U.S. citizens. I would bet that they are Mexican Nationals in the country illegally and probably members of any one of a number of gangs that trade in drugs, arms and humans affiliated with the cartels.

If the government had done its job, they wouldn't be here to buy the weapons.

Seal the border, no illegals or drugs in, no guns or ammo out. Problem solved. Can't say it any simpler.

The OBL and special interests do not truly care about helping the Mexican people or Americans no matter what they claim. If they honestly cared about the people they would push for sealing the border to stop this madness on both sides of the border. Its the quickest fix.

The blood of those killed on both sides of the border daily stains the hands of those pushing to keep the border open, unfortunately they cannot see it

Originally Posted by Newmexican

I have serious dobts that the people buying and transporting these guns are U.S. citizens. I would bet that they are Mexican Nationals in the country illegally and probably members of any one of a number of gangs that trade in drugs, arms and humans affiliated with the cartels.

If the government had done its job, they wouldn't be here to buy the weapons.

Most of the guns are bought seemily legally by American citizens between 18 and 22, but it is still illegal because they are really just straw buyers who give the guns to the Mexicans for $100 per gun. The gangs give them the cash to buy the guns up front and they get their $100 payment when they turn over the gun to the gang.

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