From Belgium To Mazatlan, The Journey Of The Mouse's Gun

 "Char" for Borderland Beat 

Ovidio was seized another "762 caliber pistol" of Century Arms International brand, model VSKA with serial number SV7Poo6996, manufactured in the United States. The original purchaser was Zachariah Mahemiah Millsap, born November 5, 1993 in Los Angeles California.

WASHINGTON (Proceso): The other side of the alliances between the U.S. and Mexican cartels "is arms trafficking. Days before his resignation as Foreign Minister to seek Morena's presidential candidacy for 2024, Marcelo Ebrard tells Proceso that the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador denounces to its commercial partner that "arms trafficking is not an individual matter, nor is it the work of a single gang".

The former Secretary of Foreign Affairs states that it is a large-scale transfer to Mexico due to the magnitude of the operation. "If we are talking in numbers from 2020 to 2022, we are talking about 60,000 weapons seized. You can multiply them by whatever multiple you calculate that is the total flow. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of weapons, that is large-scale trafficking, it is not an individual action. This is cause for investigation.

An irrefutable argument and complaint from López Obrador's government to that of President Joe Biden is that the illegal trafficking of semi-automatic weapons and ammunition from the United States to Mexico is what empowers groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation, a fact that also hinders efforts to dismantle them.

The Ovidio case

On January 5, General Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Secretary of National Defense, announced the capture of Ovidio Guzmán López, "El Ratón", in the state of Sinaloa. He is one of Chapo Guzmán's sons and a member of the drug trafficking group Los Chapitos.

In the possession of this publication, and as an example of the empowerment of Mexican drug traffickers that the Mexican government is talking about, is the data sheet of three high-powered weapons that the Mexican Army found and seized from Guzman Lopez when he was re-incarcerated.

The technical sheet contains data verified and tracked by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on their original purchasers, where and when they were acquired, and the method by which they were illegally trafficked into Mexico.

The first is a Browning-brand 9-millimeter pistol, serial number 245PT1012g, manufactured in Belgium and imported into the United States by Browning Arms Company. The original purchaser is Stephen William Lewis, born November 18, 1947, who acquired it on November 30, 1994 in the state of Oregon at Oles Gun Shop.

The ATF reported that this pistol "is part of a multiple sale of pistols reported to - the ATF itself - by a Federal Firearms Sales Licensee." It is a lethal piece that traveled a little more than 9,300 kilometers from Belgium to the hands of Ovidio Guzman in Sinaloa, that is, three times the distance from Tijuana to Cancun.

Ovidio was seized another "762 caliber pistol" of the Century Arms International brand, model VSKA with serial number SV7Poo6996, manufactured in the United States. The original buyer was Zachariah Mahemiah Millsap, born November 5, 1993 in Los Angeles California, who acquired it on March 17, 2022 at Healy Gun Shop, located in Temple, Arizona.

The gun, according to the ATF trace and report, also "is part of a multiple pistol sale reported to ATF by a Federal Licensee (LF) of firearms sales. The transaction date noted on the summary is the date the LF generated the multiple sale and may not represent the actual transaction date of the firearm purchase."

The Mexican drug lord was also seized a 762 caliber rifle, model VSKA of the Century Arms International brand, manufactured in the United States and allegedly bearing the serial number SV71055971; it is the third high-powered weapon found on Chapo's son.

The ATF does not know the name of the original purchaser of this rifle or the date it was acquired. It did locate the gun shop where it came from and it is C.A.I./Century Arms, in Georgia, Vermont. "The serial number on the firearm is not valid," the ATF clarified.

SOURCE: PROCESO