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Sunday, October 8, 2023

Mexican Drug Cartels Look To North Texas To Smuggle Military-Grade Guns

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat


Guns purchased in Texas are ending up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels at an alarming volume. 

According to a recent government report, an estimated 200,000 firearms are smuggled into Mexico each year. Of those recovered and traced, nearly half come from Texas.

As fentanyl deaths rise across the state, Governor Greg Abbott has placed much of the blame on Mexican drug cartels.

On Capitol Hill, Texas politicians have called for the U.S. to declare war on the cartels.

But as the drugs head north, the weapons that allow the cartels to keep their power are headed in the opposite direction.

"It's a huge problem for both sides," said ATF special agent in charge Jeffery Boshek. "I would say it's the ATF's and the Dallas field division's number one priority."


In July 2022, according to court records, federal agents discovered a massive gun smuggling operation with ties to the Mexican cartel inside a home in southwest Arlington.

At the home, inside a closet, ATF agents found 150 empty gun boxes. Jose Carlos Rivas-Chairez, a Mexican citizen who lived at the home, paid more than a half-dozen U.S. residents to buy guns for him. 

Rivas-Chairez, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison, admitted he disabled the guns, wrapped them in plastic, hid them in car tires, and then smuggled them to Mexico, according to court records

Jose Carlos Rivas-Chairez CBS News Texas

"I think the majority of DFW residents don't realize that this can be going on in their neighborhood," Boshek said.

The ATF special agent in charge said when federal law enforcement ramped up gun trafficking efforts in border cities, the cartels started looking north to the DFW area for straw buyers. Straw buyers are people who purchase guns on behalf of someone else.

In their efforts to stop this illegal gun trafficking, federal agents often monitor social media to identify potential straw buyers. That's how undercover ATF agents caught Daniel Loyola Jr., 24, of Fort Worth.

According to federal court records, Loyola, who was sentenced earlier this year to 10 years in prison, admitted to buying a machine gun along with .50-caliber Barrett rifles for the cartel. These high-powered rifles are the gun of choice for the cartels.

.50 caliber rifles seized by ATF Dallas field division CBS News Texas

For years, if caught, straw buyers faced soft penalties but that changed in June of 2022, when President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. This made straw purchasing a federal crime with stiff penalties.

In the first year of the new law, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 100 people had been charged with illegal firearm trafficking and straw purchasing.

"It has been a game changer for ATF," Boshek said. "It has really put some teeth into laws that had no teeth before."

The federal government also launched a new initiative last year, called Operation Southbound, with the goal of disrupting gun trafficking to Mexico.

The operation resulted in the seizure of nearly 2,000 firearms from October 2022 to March 2023—a nearly 65% increase compared to the same period the year prior, according to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

But that still pales in comparison the number of firearms flowing into Mexico. According to the Mexican government, 2,000 guns are smuggled into Mexico every single day.

Mexican citizens have the right to bear arms in its constitution, but there's only one gun store in the entire country. If you go, you must present six forms of identification—including proof of employment and have a clean criminal record—to purchase a gun.

Federal officials have credited the Mexican government for its help in several of recent gun smuggling cases. In July, the two countries announced a plan to increase firearm tracing with guns seized from the cartels.

In the documentary titled "Arming Cartels: Inside the Mexican-American Gun Running Networks, " CBS News talked to cartel members about their ability to get firearms



37 comments:

  1. Sol:
    I hope you are having a happy octopus day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cool. So, in the immortal words of Dora the Explorer I'll have to say same same to you my friend. Lol

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  2. The Cartels could invade USA the same way Hamas invaded Israel.

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    Replies
    1. Where’s the lie? They’ve been in the Phx area for years. Who the fuck are those FFLs

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    2. Cartel invaded the US decades ago and continue to do so on a daily basis.

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    3. That’s counterproductive for them where would they hide the boss

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    4. 10:25 has been watching too many Rambo movies.

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    5. Would love to see them invade the USA, more than they already are. Open season on them with justification for killing them.

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    6. Funny shit. Mexican officials state 2,000 guns are "smuggled" into Mexico everyday.

      Well, they shure as fuck aren't doing much to stop the flow themselves by inspecting more incoming vehicles for guns and illegal cash tender.

      How about more checkpoint inspections heading into Mexico from the USA.

      America is guilty too. We have the technology and resources to inspect over 95% of passengers and cars coming into the USA but Congress and the President never fund that shit.

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  3. Yeah right the Mexicans have the right to bear arms!!maybe a sporting shotgun or pinche vente dos target rifle!!I have seen many clips of the Mexicans destroying guns running them over with a steam roller!!all single shot 22s and shotguns!!all others are recycled and reissued to various criminal groups !!follow the money and have some and to can get a gun 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

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    1. FACTS. POLICE departments in Mexico (Municipales, National guard, Sedena, etc.) also strip down SEIZED weapons and "borrow" the attachments from those weapons for their own personal duty weapons.
      Seen Municipales in my fam's town sporting Eotechs, IR sights, and other fancy shit on their rifles.
      Obvious the MX gov. ain't paying for all that shit.
      Cartels smuggle it, they get busted in a raid, cops seize everything and repurpose it for their own use

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  4. For one, this is likely CDG related… so can’t really call them a cartel these days…

    How about the Fast & Furious scandal??

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    1. 11:01 - What makes you think this is CDG related ? Many cartels smuggle guns through the border including CDS and CJNG.

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    2. They use kids from border cities with American citizenship to buy guns

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    3. 5:06 *USA citizenship*

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    4. 505 No period kid, how about you say, they use toddlers to bring guns to Mexico.

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  5. La sirena apparantly got arrested in Michoacan, not 100% sure if true, but seen articles popping out.

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    Replies
    1. @11:05 you seen articles or was it on the wats app group

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    2. 11:05 - I’ve seen news outlets report that the burning cars were due to a shootout between two different cartels. I have not seen anything confirming the capture of La Sirena. I guess we will have to wait and see if anymore information comes out.

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    3. 11:05 - BlogDelNarco wrote an article claiming that the burning of vehicles in Michoacán was in response to the military arresting 8 Colombian nationals who are apparently experts in makeshift bombs. Maybe they’re ex Colombian military and the cartel that they were working started causing chaos to try to get the military to release them, but it seems that the military operation was a success.

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    4. All those groups in Michoacán outsource guys from Colombia and Central America because all the good fighters and youth are pretty much gone

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  6. Guns smuggled into México per year according to each country:
    USA: 200,000
    México: 750,000
    Who's more likely to be correct?
    One country can investigate, crunch and analyze the numbers.
    The other relies on what?

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    Replies
    1. Probably Mexico, only thing is the other 550,000 come from Russia , Ukraine, central & south America

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  7. "Military grade" is such a stupid term. Most military grade shit is trash because the contractors are trying to nickel and dime as much money as possible.

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    1. Exactly. This is what people don't understand when they read these stories. MILITARY weapons (riles, handguns) are NOT the best quality because of cost cutting. Sure they are durable but CIVILIAN markets undoubtedly offer the best hardware that money can buy.
      MACHINE GUNS on the other hand, wherever they're being sourced from, they're not going through an FFL so the US military has to be involved in smuggling these machine guns somehwere along the line.

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  8. It’s actually bad in Texas. I live in Austin and you can literally buy or sell a gun privately online and meet them in person like Craigslist. No wonder so many get smuggled a day.

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    1. Quit whining, it’s called freedom. It’s the bad actors that want to break laws for a quick buck . Guns don’t traffic themselves. Oh and isn’t Austin a liberal run city? If Austin is getting so bad maybe if they kick out all the dumbacrat transplants fleeing their own bad policies , and trying to implement them elsewhere, things would be better.

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    2. You guys cry when gun laws allow this to happen and when gun laws become more STRICT you cry again because it's TOO REGULATED.
      Everyone should stop their CRYING because when the issue is FINALLY addressed the solution is never as efficient as people expected it to be.
      That's what people DON'T understand, we're never going to land on that SWEET spot where the perfect amount of legislation exists and every issue magically gets solved.
      Always gonna be too much regulation or not enough regulation.

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    3. New law.If you have posed with your gun in a mirror itgets taken away

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    4. At 1:48 pm Come and take it!

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  9. The gun situation in Texas is Fn awesome like dude said there's websites here where you can go on find a maxed out ar15 or an AK with sites drums and whatever bell or whistle for around 1500-5000 depends on make or model and meet dude in an HEB parking lot pay the cash shake a hand and see ya ! That's how it should be but get pulled over with a bag of weed and your off to the gallows .I'll take guns over weed anyway for me they serve the same cause ! Stress Reduction

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  10. Keep selling them animals 50 cals at some point that will bite usa in the ass.

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    Replies
    1. CDS and CJNG operate with impunity cause they pay off the cops and the politicians. without them even the mexican army could wipe them out

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  11. The scenerio at Fronton Island is perfect to kick off real battles with the U.S.. Like a tiny Vietnam to get the war started nice and small, but a money maker with plenty of ongoing death. Mexico has the highground, the US plenty of money to keep rebuilding.

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  12. I wonder if it might have anything to do with the fact that Mexico and Texas share a long border . . .

    ReplyDelete

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