US Gun Dealers Arm Mexican Drug Wars

Softer American laws lead to cross-border flood of weapons
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 26, 2009 8:26 AM CST
US Gun Dealers Arm Mexican Drug Wars
Two federal police officers carry a box with weapons seized from suspected members of a crime gang after presenting them to the press in Mexico City, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009.   (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

More than 6,000 Mexicans died in drug wars last year, and violence has surged recently as gangs battle the police and each other. But because of Mexico's strict gun laws, cartels have to get their weaponry from elsewhere: the United States. Ninety percent of guns recovered in Mexico originated north of the border, the New York Times reports—often from small dealers scattered along the border.

Mexican civilians need approval from the military to buy handguns, and high-powered rifles are illegal. The cartels enlist Americans to buy assault rifles from multiple dealers, then import them, often stuffed in the panels of cars. Arizona's attorney general compared the traffic to a "parade of ants." "It’s not any one big dealer, it’s lots of individuals," he said. "That makes it very hard to detect." (More Mexico stories.)

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