Authorities try to keep guns from drug cartels

By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY

U.S., Mexican and Colombian officials are taking new steps to stop U.S.-based gun-smuggling networks that arm violent Mexican drug cartels.
The focus on gun smuggling comes as new Drug Enforcement Administration data out today show street prices of cocaine reaching near record levels. The three countries have shared intelligence to target major drug cartels in successful prosecutions, which appears to have slowed the flow of cocaine into the USA.

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The high prices "suggest that we are placing significant stress on the drug delivery system," DEA Intelligence Chief Tony Placido says. The DEA will work with Mexico and Colombia to staunch cash and weapons going south, he says, now that "we've got less pressure on us from the contraband flowing north."

He says the "vast majority of guns" seized at Mexican crime sites come from the USA.

"The Second Amendment allows U.S. citizens to bear arms. The amendment was never meant to arm foreign criminal groups," he says. He adds that Mexican criminals take advantage of looser U.S. gun laws.

Of the nearly 29,000 weapons Mexican police seized in the past two years, 16,000 were assault rifles, he says.

Mexico's strict gun control laws make it nearly impossible for anyone who's not an officer to buy a gun legally, says William Newell, who heads the Phoenix field division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Drug cartels set up networks in the USA to buy guns and smuggle them to Mexico, he says.

The ATF has expanded access to its gun-tracing system to nine U.S. consulates in Mexico and deployed more agents on the border, says William Hoover, assistant director of field operations. The agency asked Mexico to station one of its federal agents in the ATF's Phoenix office, he says.

About 95% of the guns recovered and traced in Mexico come from the USA, Newell says. Recent data show a surge in seizures of .50-caliber guns that can pierce armored cars
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