Thread: Cartels' guns flow from U.S.

Cartels' guns flow from U.S.

Smugglers take advantage of some states' looser laws

By Leslie Berestein (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer, Sandra Dibble (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer, David Hasemyer (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. March 25, 2009

Mexican soldiers kept watch over weapons confiscated after a deadly Tijuana shootout Oct. 15. Five of the guns were traced to Las Vegas. (David Maung) - Online: For photos, videos and more stories about border violence, go to borderwar.uniontrib.com

After a particularly brutal shootout turned a quiet Tijuana cul-de-sac into a war zone last October, leaving one Mexican soldier and four drug cartel suspects dead, investigators combing through the carnage found the weapons.

There were assault rifles, a massive .50-caliber sniper rifle, even a hand grenade. Fourteen guns were seized. Five of them, it turns out, were bought last summer in Las Vegas.

According to federal court documents, Las Vegas was the northern portal of a gun-smuggling pipeline that funneled weapons purchased in Nevada through California and into Tijuana.

The operation appears to be a prime example of what Mexican authorities have long pleaded with the U.S. government to help curb, especially as cartel violence has reached crisis proportions – the southbound flow of guns that provides Mexico's drug traffickers with the bulk of their firepower.

With firearm ownership severely restricted in Mexico, criminals there have long taken advantage of much looser U.S. gun laws to outfit themselves, particularly with semiautomatic assault weapons and powerful rifles and handguns that fire bullets capable of piercing body armor.

On Oct. 15, a unit of Mexican soldiers was fired upon by heavily armed suspects as they raided a two-story house in Tijuana's central La Mesa district.

Angel Guadalupe Aguilar Villatoro, a 27-year-old corporal from the state of Chiapas in the Fifth Special Forces Battalion, was shot in the head as he moved inside the house with a partner. He became the first soldier to die in Baja California as part of the Mexican federal government's military crackdown on drug cartels, now in its third year.

Four suspects also died in the shootout; a sixth body showing signs of torture was later found stuffed in a large cooler.

After the gunfight, Mexican law enforcement seized the weapons. Five of the guns traced by U.S. federal agents – a .223-caliber assault rifle, three .308-caliber assault rifles and the sniper rifle – were purchased between July 25 and Aug. 2 by a man in Las Vegas identified in court documents as Juan Valdez.

In the documents, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Valdez had bought or caused others to buy more than $100,000 worth of firearms. After authorities used a warrant to search his home in early December, yielding additional weapons and cash, Valdez claimed he had been buying guns for a man named “Zorra,â€

The operation appears to be a prime example of what Mexican authorities have long pleaded with the U.S. government to help curb, especially as cartel violence has reached crisis proportions – the southbound flow of guns that provides Mexico's drug traffickers with the bulk of their firepower.

Aslong as Mexico wants us to leave the border open for illegals to run across, any pleas for assistance in stopping any suspected gun trade is hypocritical.

They don't want our guns, we don't want their illegals and drugs. Seal the border, problem solved.

RELATED ?

Giant Shipment of Weapons Seized at Airport

Last Update: 6:06 am

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Customs agents released this photo of the 12-gauge shotguns (pistol and traditional grip style) seized yesterday at the Cincinnati Airport. (WKRC-TV) U.S. Customs agents say they've stopped a massive shipment of weapons from entering the United States through the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Customs and Border Patrol agents made the seizure yesterday. The shipment, manifested as "Toys" was valued at $14,000 and shipped in 25 boxes from Istanbul, Turkey.

Agents decided to search the boxes after it was determined the weapons had arrived without the proper permits.

They found 60 pump action 12-gauge shotguns and 177 pistols. The shotguns were encased in Styrofoam molding and individually packaged in 12 large boxes. The pistols were shipped within hard plastic gun storage cases packed inside 13 large cardboard boxes.

The guns were destined for a business located in Kentucky. Neither the shotguns nor pistols were found to have any serial numbers or markings.

Agents say this is the largest seizure of weapons ever made by CBP in Cincinnati.

http://www.local12.com/mostpopular/stor ... ApHtA.cspx

Do you think if we put our military on the border these small time arms deal might end immediately. Then Mexico can concentrate of stopping cartels from bringing much bigger shipments of military weapons through Central America and their own ports.

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