US Legal Arms Market Is Mexico's Paradise For Organized Crime

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat 

Danielle Dithurbide and a group of researchers present a special report on the purchase of legal weapons in the United States and the trafficking to Mexico

* The Noticieros Televisa team undertook the task of buying arms legally in three US states with high supply and demand for weapons

On June 26, 2020, a group of hitmen from the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) fired more than 400 bullets at the CDMX Secretary of Public Security, Omar García Harfuch.

Two bodyguards and one civilian died in the attack. The public official survived with three bullets in his body. The weapons that were used in that attack, as well as those that were behind more than 17 thousand deaths in the country during 2019, were legally bought in the United States and illegally smuggled into Mexico.

According to the federal government, between 70 and 90% of the weapons recovered at crime scenes in Mexico were illegally trafficked from the United States.

In this special report, journalist Danielle Dithurbide shows how lax the laws are to buy weapons in the United States and, also, how easy it is to introduce them to Mexico.

Dithurbide and a group of special investigators set out to legally buy guns from Texas, California and Maryland, three states with high supply and demand for legal weapons.

In Texas, during 2019, more than 1,800,000 guns were sold. For its part, in California, one of the states with the "strictest" laws for buying and selling, more than 680 thousand were acquired. Maryland, finally, is one of the states in which AR-15s are sold the most, the most popular weapon in that country as well as among drug traffickers in Mexico.

This report also illustrates how easy it is, through intimidation and bribery, to smuggle these weapons, legal in the United States, illegally into Mexico in large quantities.

In August this year, the Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, filed a lawsuit by the Mexican government against 15 US companies that manufacture weapons. The legal action, presented in a US federal court, asks for compensation of 10 billion dollars for the irresponsible participation of these companies in the illegal traffic to Mexico.

Company spokespersons have categorically denied these allegations, arguing that Mexico is responsible for its own anti-gun laws. However, the lawsuit was accepted by the federal court in Massachusetts and will continue to proceed.

If they favor the Mexican government, arms companies such as Smith & Wesson, Barrett Firearms, Colt’s Manufacturing Company, Glock Inc, and Sturm, Ruger & Company, will have to pay the equivalent of almost 2% of the national GDP.

"We are not doing it to put pressure on the United States," said Alejandro Celorio, legal adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Relations. "We do it so that there are no deaths in Mexico."

On his part, the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), in the morning conference on August 5, explained that it is not an interventionist gesture that seeks to change the laws of the United States:

“We adhere to the law. It is not an interventionist gesture, it is not against the United States Government, it is a civil procedure because it affects us that there is no control over weapons. It is not against the amendment that gives Americans the right to bear arms, but the way in which these weapons are manufactured and sold that reach our country and cause deaths because there is no limitation or control, ”he said.

President López Obrador also explained one of the main reasons for the lawsuit:

“They make weapons tailored to clients in Mexico who are dedicated to organized crime and they know it. Our country is the destination of those weapons. "

The Mexican government's demand includes high-profile cases of violence in Mexico such as the confrontation between the military and hitmen of one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in 2019, the attack against García Harfuch and the murder of journalist Miroslava Breach, in Chihuahua.

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