You’re right about the gun trafficking going on for awhile. I knew people in the late 80s, early 90s when I lived down there who would haul guns that way. Getting tougher penalties might deter some people, but not nearly enough. Great piece. I’m going to reread your book. I’m sitting here looking at it now. Waiting for the next one.
There are a couple of important things to keep in mind if you want to convince Americans, particularly gun owners to go along with this. First, you need to convince law abiding citizens they have nothing to fear from this. The problem is the ATF has been completely and maliciously out of control particularly in recent years. There are several high profile cases recently where they have outright lied in court to convict innocent people and distrust and hostility towards the agency is almost unprecedented. Second, when Americans see things like piles of grenades, Warsaw Pact GPMGs, and submachine guns displayed after police raids they get suspicious and defensive. Those are obviously not coming from the US and too often it sounds like Mexican politicians are trying to shift all the blame. Finally fairly or not, not many Americans believe Mexico even cares about the drugs and migrants crossing the border.
Thanks for your thoughtful response Matt. So do you think the Trump administration would be cautious about using these charges as they would be seen as hitting gun rights? Best
The book goes into where those grenades and other more “exotic” are often sourced from, but it is not like these criminal groups only get weapons from one source. They buy them from whoever is selling them for the best price and for a significant number of criminals, that is the US retail market. It will be until the USG cracks down on those breaking the laws.
Passing back to Caborca from Hermosillo last Thursday the town of Altar ( the people snuggling staging point no longer had shops full of camouflage clothing.The stores now were full of colorful summer stuff) .We were commenting at 5:30 pm how normal it looked after 15 years of armed cartel occupation ....then at 6 PM a machine gun firing narco chased by machine gun firing Marina's in one of those bad ass looking pickups with a machine gun mounted in the back occured.....not safe yet thanks to American guns ...
Ioan, great journalism as usual. Do you think a time will come where MX and the US will draft an agreement of sorts where Americans who purchase firearms for cartels are prosecuted and jailed in MX? From my understanding, which is limited to search engines, Mexico's firearm laws are wildly different from the U.S. and MX would essentially need to change its' laws to where gun traffickers could be prosecuted without the physical firearms being in the government's custody. Also, Mexico's legal doctrine requires prosecutors to turn over non-redacted witness lists and statements to the defendant; obviously creating a scenario for swift retaliation and witness intimidation that stops prosecutions.
Cheers there Enrique. If U.S. traffickers that drive drugs into Mexico are caught south of the border they get jailed there. I don't see the US automatically handing over criminals but maybe México could try indicting them and getting there extradition. It would certainly be an interesting strategy.
Obviously this is a hot button topic for many. Cartels getting their arms trafficking from the states is one thing but how do we deal with central and South America? Especially in regards to the more explosive fire power like frag grenades and law rocket launchers
Yeah, there are certainly different sources of arms. But does the fact there are different sources mean the US shouldn't reduce the guns from the US? Yeah, those are interesting movies.
Central American and South American countries need to definitely be on board with helping in hitting arms trafficking throughout the hemisphere this is clearly a problem that effects many.
I just wonder do American guns flow south all the way to the southern cone? Or does guns go up north all the way to Mexico? And which one is more prevalent American guns going south?
As this report points out, a lot of the weapons seized from Brazilian criminals often go through the US retail market first before getting in the hands of traffickers. That includes the locally made ones. It is likely a similar situation throughout the Americas.
IIRC, Ioan had a quote from a criminal that mentioned that it was “easy as sending a bag of rice” when referring to exporting weapons out of FL to Jamaica.
The trace data that the ATF slogs through shows this relationship between firearms found at foreign crime scenes and US retail buyers. One would think that when the manufacturers/importers, distributors, and other FFLs respond to these requests, they know that it’s not for shits and giggles. It is something that’s been involved in a crime and patterns would eventually become apparent. That’s the entire reason for that shield law in the first place and why legislation has been introduced to have the form 4473 documents destroyed after a successful background check has been completed. That would make most of the straw buyer investigations pointless and would be a big green light to traffickers.
I think saw somewhere that Brazilian gangsters in Rio were using U.S. sourced guns which means do our firearms go that far? And how come every country in the region doesn't police its borders on what gets through
Yeah, there are a couple of routes that US guns get to South America illegally. One is via cartels in Mexico. The other is smuggled on ships in Florida right across the hemisphere. And true arms control efforts need to be international.
The United States is complicit in the bloodbath occurring in Mexico and it's most destructive agents of death are the CIA and the State Department of the United States. The situation in Mexico from 2009-2013 gives you just a clue about how involved the CIA and the State Department are in international arms dealing and in Mexico.
The Obama administration was looking everywhere to fund and arm any opponents of the governments the administration wanted to destroy including funding ISIS and Al Qaeda groups in Libya, Syria and Africa. The attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi was essentially a clash over weapons the CIA wanted transferred to Syria and the rebel groups in Benghazi wanting to keep the weapons. The State Department had sold to Al Qaeda groups in Libya Stinger missiles and the CIA wanted to transfer those Stinger missiles to Syrian ISIS and Al Qaeda rebel groups. Not for the first do you have this competition and lack of coordination between the CIA and the State Department. The Al Qaeda groups in Libya said no way and attacked the Embassy and CIA compound there. The US ambassador killed was an arms dealer and coordinator for the CIA's role in the Arab Spring.
The Obama administration used Mexico as a funding mechanism to support secret operations in the Middle East and in Africa. The funding mechanism was selling drugs and weapons which has served the CIA and State Department very well since World War II and especially Vietnam and afterwards. The Sinaloa cartel was looked upon as a good partner especially with the foundation the Sinaloa cartel had already built in the United States particularly in California. The CIA looked the other way and received a protection fee from the Sinaloa Cartel and military grade weaponry were secretly sold to the cartel. This was supported by groups in the Obama Administration who were fearful of a Los Zeta's coup in Mexico raising the possibility of a violent presidential campaign in 2012. But the State Department had other ideas either out of jealousy or stupidity and decided to arm the Zetas. Phil Jordan, an ex-CIA intelligence officer and former director of the DEA's intelligence center in El Paso stated that the Zeta's had transferred a large amount of weapons from the Dallas area to El Paso. Robert Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, substantiated those claims by Jordan adding the the Zetas had bought property in New Mexico as a warehouse for the weaponry. Plumlee and Jordan said the Zeta's had been stockpiling thousands of weapons to disrupt the 2012 elections. Zeta's themselves had stated they had brought military weaponry across the Rio Grande River into Mexico. Zeta's were the master thieves of the US military's armories assisted by Zeta members who were in the US military. Auditing by the US of military equipment is almost non-existent. Author Brad Kozak "Truth About Guns" said
"The ATF was not the only ones running guns to Mexico. Apparently the State Department was playing, too. And then consider this angle — was the State Department competing with the ATF for the hearts and minds of the Mexican drug trade?......
If the ATF is supplying the Sinaloas (with Calderón’s tacit approval and/or help) and State is playing for the Zetas, where does that leave the rest of America?"
It is also possible that Fast and Furious was a smoke screen, a diversion from the real and massive sale of drugs and selling of military equipment that the CIA was involved in with the Sinaloa Cartel In 2010 alone $416 million of military weapons and equipment was sent to Mexico and there is no real accounting where those weapons and equipment went. CIA has had decades of experience in the past of diverting military weapons and conducting their own sales and laundering the proceeds through very high profile banks.
" In July 2013, retired United States Border Patrol agents, writing on behalf of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), issued a public letter warning that violent Mexican drug cartels are operating all across the US. In part, the letter noted, “Organized crime on [the] scale we are speaking about cannot exist without political protection.”
A US government program, Direct Commercial Sales, had approved $4.7 billion in private-sector weapons exports to Mexico since 1996 to 2013. The Department of Homeland Security, during this time, had been purchasing millions of rounds of ammunition much of it not the caliper used by the US military.
To this day it has been shown with the collusion with the world's largest arm merchants and their actions in the Ukraine that the CIA is the world's merchant of death and this does not bode will for Mexico's future. The new weapons of mass destruction are drones which are the basis of the war in the Ukraine. US most expensive military equipment has been damaged or destroyed by drones. Since the United States is involved in making the Philippines as another military proxy state like the Ukraine, placing missiles and missile launchers in the Philippine during so-called military drills and the continuing interference in Central and South America, Mexico could become the cash cow for the CIA and the United States to finance these off the books military operations and also as a military federation to battle the so-called dragon menace of Asia, China. Unfortunately, Fast and Furious may only be a bump in the further militarization of the cartels. Obviously, being labelled terrorists only necessitates their need for more advanced military equipment and the CIA is always there devoid of any US national concerns or Mexico for that matter. The CIA has always shown itself to completely lack any nationalistic concerns, statesmanship qualities and ethics of any sort and has truly shown itself to be the worst criminal element in the world.
Ahhh, getting deep into some dangerous turf here, and a lot of great quotes as well. The interesection of narcos and spooks is certainly a misty swamp - more on all this to come...
By the way two Nazi's in the state of Washington were arrested with stolen military weapons from a nearby base. The Nazi's said they have been stealing weapons for the past two years. Another fine example of military security and auditing.
Yeah, this is an important issue - some of the heavy weapons going to the cartels are almost certainly pilfered from U.S. arsenals. It's amazing they can't keep it locked up.
it boggles the mind that they weren't declared FTOs long ago. Like how much death and destruction does it take? It seems a positive if it will help crack down on guns from the USA, but there are also reports I read of Wagner group training them. So the ongoing hostilities with Russia are coming to our own backyard. https://www.scylla.ai/southern-border-cartels-wagner-and-drone-warfare/. Though I can understand why the mainstream media in the USA would under report such a thing given that they are little more than cheer leaders for the military industrial complex
This is a very interesting pointer on Wagner, thanks. Yeah the terrorist designation certainly does give some teeth although I guess we need at least a year or so to judge the consequences...
Thanks for the article. I have not been able to comment for past few although I read each and appreciate them.
I had no idea that straw buyers received so little consequence for their crime. I have been a 2A guy my whole life and these activities really cast all responsible gun owners in such a bad light.
I appreciate the idea of radically increasing the charges for straw buying. It sounds like MX can rightly ascribe blame for most of the firearms to this activity. At least in the US the threat of lead or gold to buyers is probably not as present.
Not surprised at how inept the ATF presents itself. Hopefully going forward it can get better things done.
In other news, I went to the funeral of a 20 year old kid who overdosed on Fent a couple of weeks ago. Service held in an Orange County church, the seat of United States affluence. Watching the slide show of his life, it was obvious that he had every possible opportunity but yet was pulled from this life in just a few moments. That drug certainly is an equal opportunity killer.
Well appreciated for your feedback Paul. Yeah, like so many of these issues they are never totally straighforward. What a tragedy for the funeral in Orange County. I need to highlight more of these human stories of overdose victims. Although the number of overdoses has gone down since its worse peak they are still at horrific levels. Best there friend.
You’re right about the gun trafficking going on for awhile. I knew people in the late 80s, early 90s when I lived down there who would haul guns that way. Getting tougher penalties might deter some people, but not nearly enough. Great piece. I’m going to reread your book. I’m sitting here looking at it now. Waiting for the next one.
Ha ha. Well appreciated there Daniel. I'm sitting here looking at the next book now but it's still mostly blank pages - I need to get a move on!
There are a couple of important things to keep in mind if you want to convince Americans, particularly gun owners to go along with this. First, you need to convince law abiding citizens they have nothing to fear from this. The problem is the ATF has been completely and maliciously out of control particularly in recent years. There are several high profile cases recently where they have outright lied in court to convict innocent people and distrust and hostility towards the agency is almost unprecedented. Second, when Americans see things like piles of grenades, Warsaw Pact GPMGs, and submachine guns displayed after police raids they get suspicious and defensive. Those are obviously not coming from the US and too often it sounds like Mexican politicians are trying to shift all the blame. Finally fairly or not, not many Americans believe Mexico even cares about the drugs and migrants crossing the border.
Thanks for your thoughtful response Matt. So do you think the Trump administration would be cautious about using these charges as they would be seen as hitting gun rights? Best
The concern is less the current administration than the possibility it creates a loophole for abuse by a later administration.
Interesting thought there, thanks and great to have your voice here Matt.
The book goes into where those grenades and other more “exotic” are often sourced from, but it is not like these criminal groups only get weapons from one source. They buy them from whoever is selling them for the best price and for a significant number of criminals, that is the US retail market. It will be until the USG cracks down on those breaking the laws.
"There are several high profile cases recently..." Which cases specifically do you speak of?
Mark Manley, Patrick Adamiak, Bryan Malinowski are just a few.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/05/supreme-court-mexico-gun-lawsuit?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other. Hopeless ... Fascism has arrived in USA
Yep, I have just updated the piece with this news....
Passing back to Caborca from Hermosillo last Thursday the town of Altar ( the people snuggling staging point no longer had shops full of camouflage clothing.The stores now were full of colorful summer stuff) .We were commenting at 5:30 pm how normal it looked after 15 years of armed cartel occupation ....then at 6 PM a machine gun firing narco chased by machine gun firing Marina's in one of those bad ass looking pickups with a machine gun mounted in the back occured.....not safe yet thanks to American guns ...
Smuggling not snuggling...damn spell ✅
That is fascinating and great to have some eyes on the ground there - that is quite funky area. Be well.
Trumpis doing what can and needed to be done.
All we need is one American sent to GITMO or El Salvador.
The price of American guns will become prohibitive.
That would certainly send a message!
Ioan, great journalism as usual. Do you think a time will come where MX and the US will draft an agreement of sorts where Americans who purchase firearms for cartels are prosecuted and jailed in MX? From my understanding, which is limited to search engines, Mexico's firearm laws are wildly different from the U.S. and MX would essentially need to change its' laws to where gun traffickers could be prosecuted without the physical firearms being in the government's custody. Also, Mexico's legal doctrine requires prosecutors to turn over non-redacted witness lists and statements to the defendant; obviously creating a scenario for swift retaliation and witness intimidation that stops prosecutions.
Cheers there Enrique. If U.S. traffickers that drive drugs into Mexico are caught south of the border they get jailed there. I don't see the US automatically handing over criminals but maybe México could try indicting them and getting there extradition. It would certainly be an interesting strategy.
Operation “arm them then save them”. Their nasty policy for decades.
As cheekily said by Bill Hicks: https://youtu.be/IEt-v9MH2gw?si=m8kL_7WU8f6jh0Yr
Ahhh, the amazing Bill Hicks - a prophet and a poet...
Obviously this is a hot button topic for many. Cartels getting their arms trafficking from the states is one thing but how do we deal with central and South America? Especially in regards to the more explosive fire power like frag grenades and law rocket launchers
And RPGs granted I don't think cartels have very big RPG stockpiles. They rarely use them. Like say the taliban or isis.
The united states is the number 1 exporter of firearms and war material. This reminds me of lord of war and war dogs
Yeah, there are certainly different sources of arms. But does the fact there are different sources mean the US shouldn't reduce the guns from the US? Yeah, those are interesting movies.
Central American and South American countries need to definitely be on board with helping in hitting arms trafficking throughout the hemisphere this is clearly a problem that effects many.
I just wonder do American guns flow south all the way to the southern cone? Or does guns go up north all the way to Mexico? And which one is more prevalent American guns going south?
As this report points out, a lot of the weapons seized from Brazilian criminals often go through the US retail market first before getting in the hands of traffickers. That includes the locally made ones. It is likely a similar situation throughout the Americas.
https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Brazils-gun-control-challenge-Ending-the-firearms-boom-Ivan-Marques-Michele-dos-Ramos-GITOC-2022-1.pdf
IIRC, Ioan had a quote from a criminal that mentioned that it was “easy as sending a bag of rice” when referring to exporting weapons out of FL to Jamaica.
The trace data that the ATF slogs through shows this relationship between firearms found at foreign crime scenes and US retail buyers. One would think that when the manufacturers/importers, distributors, and other FFLs respond to these requests, they know that it’s not for shits and giggles. It is something that’s been involved in a crime and patterns would eventually become apparent. That’s the entire reason for that shield law in the first place and why legislation has been introduced to have the form 4473 documents destroyed after a successful background check has been completed. That would make most of the straw buyer investigations pointless and would be a big green light to traffickers.
Great points there K Sheffield, you are well up on this issue. (And you are right, it's not for shits and goggles!). Best there friend.
I think saw somewhere that Brazilian gangsters in Rio were using U.S. sourced guns which means do our firearms go that far? And how come every country in the region doesn't police its borders on what gets through
Yeah, there are a couple of routes that US guns get to South America illegally. One is via cartels in Mexico. The other is smuggled on ships in Florida right across the hemisphere. And true arms control efforts need to be international.
The United States is complicit in the bloodbath occurring in Mexico and it's most destructive agents of death are the CIA and the State Department of the United States. The situation in Mexico from 2009-2013 gives you just a clue about how involved the CIA and the State Department are in international arms dealing and in Mexico.
The Obama administration was looking everywhere to fund and arm any opponents of the governments the administration wanted to destroy including funding ISIS and Al Qaeda groups in Libya, Syria and Africa. The attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi was essentially a clash over weapons the CIA wanted transferred to Syria and the rebel groups in Benghazi wanting to keep the weapons. The State Department had sold to Al Qaeda groups in Libya Stinger missiles and the CIA wanted to transfer those Stinger missiles to Syrian ISIS and Al Qaeda rebel groups. Not for the first do you have this competition and lack of coordination between the CIA and the State Department. The Al Qaeda groups in Libya said no way and attacked the Embassy and CIA compound there. The US ambassador killed was an arms dealer and coordinator for the CIA's role in the Arab Spring.
The Obama administration used Mexico as a funding mechanism to support secret operations in the Middle East and in Africa. The funding mechanism was selling drugs and weapons which has served the CIA and State Department very well since World War II and especially Vietnam and afterwards. The Sinaloa cartel was looked upon as a good partner especially with the foundation the Sinaloa cartel had already built in the United States particularly in California. The CIA looked the other way and received a protection fee from the Sinaloa Cartel and military grade weaponry were secretly sold to the cartel. This was supported by groups in the Obama Administration who were fearful of a Los Zeta's coup in Mexico raising the possibility of a violent presidential campaign in 2012. But the State Department had other ideas either out of jealousy or stupidity and decided to arm the Zetas. Phil Jordan, an ex-CIA intelligence officer and former director of the DEA's intelligence center in El Paso stated that the Zeta's had transferred a large amount of weapons from the Dallas area to El Paso. Robert Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, substantiated those claims by Jordan adding the the Zetas had bought property in New Mexico as a warehouse for the weaponry. Plumlee and Jordan said the Zeta's had been stockpiling thousands of weapons to disrupt the 2012 elections. Zeta's themselves had stated they had brought military weaponry across the Rio Grande River into Mexico. Zeta's were the master thieves of the US military's armories assisted by Zeta members who were in the US military. Auditing by the US of military equipment is almost non-existent. Author Brad Kozak "Truth About Guns" said
"The ATF was not the only ones running guns to Mexico. Apparently the State Department was playing, too. And then consider this angle — was the State Department competing with the ATF for the hearts and minds of the Mexican drug trade?......
If the ATF is supplying the Sinaloas (with Calderón’s tacit approval and/or help) and State is playing for the Zetas, where does that leave the rest of America?"
It is also possible that Fast and Furious was a smoke screen, a diversion from the real and massive sale of drugs and selling of military equipment that the CIA was involved in with the Sinaloa Cartel In 2010 alone $416 million of military weapons and equipment was sent to Mexico and there is no real accounting where those weapons and equipment went. CIA has had decades of experience in the past of diverting military weapons and conducting their own sales and laundering the proceeds through very high profile banks.
" In July 2013, retired United States Border Patrol agents, writing on behalf of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), issued a public letter warning that violent Mexican drug cartels are operating all across the US. In part, the letter noted, “Organized crime on [the] scale we are speaking about cannot exist without political protection.”
A US government program, Direct Commercial Sales, had approved $4.7 billion in private-sector weapons exports to Mexico since 1996 to 2013. The Department of Homeland Security, during this time, had been purchasing millions of rounds of ammunition much of it not the caliper used by the US military.
To this day it has been shown with the collusion with the world's largest arm merchants and their actions in the Ukraine that the CIA is the world's merchant of death and this does not bode will for Mexico's future. The new weapons of mass destruction are drones which are the basis of the war in the Ukraine. US most expensive military equipment has been damaged or destroyed by drones. Since the United States is involved in making the Philippines as another military proxy state like the Ukraine, placing missiles and missile launchers in the Philippine during so-called military drills and the continuing interference in Central and South America, Mexico could become the cash cow for the CIA and the United States to finance these off the books military operations and also as a military federation to battle the so-called dragon menace of Asia, China. Unfortunately, Fast and Furious may only be a bump in the further militarization of the cartels. Obviously, being labelled terrorists only necessitates their need for more advanced military equipment and the CIA is always there devoid of any US national concerns or Mexico for that matter. The CIA has always shown itself to completely lack any nationalistic concerns, statesmanship qualities and ethics of any sort and has truly shown itself to be the worst criminal element in the world.
Ahhh, getting deep into some dangerous turf here, and a lot of great quotes as well. The interesection of narcos and spooks is certainly a misty swamp - more on all this to come...
The intersection of narcos and spooks is more like a real nasty sewer!
Nice metaphor!
By the way two Nazi's in the state of Washington were arrested with stolen military weapons from a nearby base. The Nazi's said they have been stealing weapons for the past two years. Another fine example of military security and auditing.
Yeah, this is an important issue - some of the heavy weapons going to the cartels are almost certainly pilfered from U.S. arsenals. It's amazing they can't keep it locked up.
it boggles the mind that they weren't declared FTOs long ago. Like how much death and destruction does it take? It seems a positive if it will help crack down on guns from the USA, but there are also reports I read of Wagner group training them. So the ongoing hostilities with Russia are coming to our own backyard. https://www.scylla.ai/southern-border-cartels-wagner-and-drone-warfare/. Though I can understand why the mainstream media in the USA would under report such a thing given that they are little more than cheer leaders for the military industrial complex
and yes Wagner mercenaries have been found in the border region: https://www.rferl.org/a/wagner-veteran-timur-praliev-detained-us-mexico-border-russia/33271493.html
This is a very interesting pointer on Wagner, thanks. Yeah the terrorist designation certainly does give some teeth although I guess we need at least a year or so to judge the consequences...
Thanks for the article. I have not been able to comment for past few although I read each and appreciate them.
I had no idea that straw buyers received so little consequence for their crime. I have been a 2A guy my whole life and these activities really cast all responsible gun owners in such a bad light.
I appreciate the idea of radically increasing the charges for straw buying. It sounds like MX can rightly ascribe blame for most of the firearms to this activity. At least in the US the threat of lead or gold to buyers is probably not as present.
Not surprised at how inept the ATF presents itself. Hopefully going forward it can get better things done.
In other news, I went to the funeral of a 20 year old kid who overdosed on Fent a couple of weeks ago. Service held in an Orange County church, the seat of United States affluence. Watching the slide show of his life, it was obvious that he had every possible opportunity but yet was pulled from this life in just a few moments. That drug certainly is an equal opportunity killer.
Well appreciated for your feedback Paul. Yeah, like so many of these issues they are never totally straighforward. What a tragedy for the funeral in Orange County. I need to highlight more of these human stories of overdose victims. Although the number of overdoses has gone down since its worse peak they are still at horrific levels. Best there friend.
You probably have but if not, check out Victor Avila's book.
He got treated like dog shit.
Yeah, he is great guy and got really thrown under the bus by the agency. Lucky to survive though