More Than 100 New ATF Investigations in South Texas

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Posted: Apr 27, 2012 6:13 PM Updated: Apr 27, 2012 6:39 PM

WESLACO - Federal agents say they are on the trail of more than a hundred illegal gun buyers in South Texas tonight.

This is six months after a new requirement was added for gun dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says agents realized they weren't tracking high-powered rifles.

"The weapon of choice we weren't seeing reported is rifles," says Franceska Perot, an ATF spokesperson.

She adds two out of every three new cases the ATF opened in the last six months in the four border states were from Texas. The spokesperson adds it's a very good possibility that the cases are connected with cartels trafficking guns.

Perot tells us McAllen and Brownsville has always had the highest numbers of trafficking cases.

New numbers released by the Mexican government show 68,000 guns they found in the past five years were traced back to the U.S. The weapons were all found at the scene of crimes in Mexico. Some were found at cartel shootings or raids on illegal gun warehouses.

"Our end goal is to stop these guns from being used in U.S. or Mexico," explains Perot.

The ATF believes the new requirement for gun dealers will help them stop illegal gun buyers before they ever make it across the border.

"Without these reportings, we have to rely on waiting for a gun to be recovered in a crime, which is too late somebody has already lost a life.

Or we have to wait until we do an annual inspection at a firearm dealer," says Perot.

The ATF knows the new requirement will make the cartels change the way they do business.

Meanwhile, some gun dealers say the ATF's new rule is burdening them with even more paperwork. One gun shop owner doesn't think the requirement is going to help ATF agents get to the cartels.

More Than 100 New ATF Investigations in South Texas | KRGV.com | CHANNEL 5 NEWS | Breaking News Breaking Stories