Gun store's trial has cross-border echoes

Case targets dealers who sell firearms to Mexican drug gangs

By Joel Millman

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
3:00 a.m. March 8, 2009

PHOENIX — An Arizona gun shop has gone on trial in state court in what law enforcement officials are calling a landmark case against gun dealers who sell weapons that end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, fueling horrific violence south of the border that killed more than 6,000 people last year.

Jury selection began last week in the trial of X-Caliber Guns LLC, accused of knowingly selling hundreds of weapons, mostly AK-47s, to buyers who were posing as fronts for Mexican drug gangs. The store's owner, George Iknadosian, 47, has maintained his innocence in court filings.

While the United States has long pressed Mexico to stop the flow of illegal drugs such as cocaine from crossing the border heading north, Mexico has complained that the United States doesn't stop the flow of guns heading south. Mexican and U.S. officials estimated that more than 90 percent of the weapons used by Mexican drug cartels come from the United States.

Consider what happened last year in the Mexican border city of Nogales.
The chief of the Sonora state anti-drug unit, Juan Manuel Pavon, was slain by cartel hit men hours after attending a U.S. seminar on how to resist the tide of American firearms surging into Mexico. Several weapons linked to the crime traced back to X-Caliber Guns. Also, a pistol traced to X-Caliber was recovered in January 2008 when Mexican police arrested Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a top lieutenant of Joaquin “Shortyâ€