Mexico Blames US For Rampant Cartel Gun Smuggling

Mexico Blames US For Rampant Cartel Gun Smuggling

Jennie Taer on September 9, 2022

• The Mexican government blamed the U.S. Wednesday for the cartel’s cross-border gun trafficking operations. 
• “You have no reason on (your) territory to let someone with weapons cross into Mexico when you know it is illegal to have those weapons in our country. [….] We are asking, at the very least, for a similar effort,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said, according to Border Report.
• The U.S.-Mexico border continues to see a surge in illegal migration, and, with it, large numbers of gun seizures, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. 

The Mexican government recently accused the U.S. of not doing enough to stop the flow of guns trafficked into Mexico by the cartels.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said during a visit to Juarez, Mexico on Wednesday that the U.S. needs to be doing more to counter cartel gun trafficking across the southern border, according to Border Report.

“You have no reason on (your) territory to let someone with weapons cross into Mexico when you know it is illegal to have those weapons in our country. [….] We are asking, at the very least, for a similar effort,” Ebrard said, according to Border Report.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador previously criticized the Biden administration for its “lack of control” of the U.S. southern border after dozens of migrants were found dead in June in a failed smuggling attempt in San Antonio, Texas.

“It happens because there is trafficking of people and a lack of control, in this case at the Mexican-U.S. border, but also in the U.S. interior,” Lopez Obrador said at the time, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

AR-15s, AK-47s, 9mm guns and.50-caliber sniper rifles are some of the weapons being trafficked into Mexico, according to Border Report.

The Mexican government said that 500,000 guns are coming over the U.S. border each year, blaming American gun manufacturers. The country is suing nine American gun companies for alleged negligence in an ongoing U.S. federal case, Ebrard said.

“Mexico in its territory is seizing five times more weapons that the United States is seizing weapons headed to Mexico on its side,” Ebrard added.

The gun companies, however, deny Mexico’s claims, according to Border Report.

Mexico continues to see “dangerous levels” of corruption despite Lopez Obrador’s efforts to combat it, according to a 2021 American Enterprise Institute report.

The corruption among Mexican police, prosecutors and armed forces heavily affects the cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico, according to the report. Drug cartels, for example, are enabled by Mexican security officials to smuggle narcotics across the border into the U.S.

Border Patrol agents in California’s El Centro sector Tuesday seized a handgun, an AR pistol, an AR rifle, 20 magazines, 681 rounds of ammo from a U.S. passing through a checkpoint. CBP authorities in Laredo, Texas, seized a .45-caliber handgun and a Glock 9mm handgun Aug. 22 that were bound for Mexico.

“We are saying ‘you are producing weapons that you know will be sold to (drug trafficking organizations). The weapons targeted at that market are bringing about homicides, femicides, violence into Mexico. That’s why I accuse those businesses of negligence and (want them) to stop making those weapons,” Ebrard said.

The U.S.-Mexico border continues to see record numbers of migrants illegally crossing the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. On top of that, CBP has seized 186 weapons, ammunition and gun parts bound for Mexico at the southern border between Oct. 2022 and July 2022.

In total, CBP has seized 941 weapons, ammunition and gun parts between Oct. 2022 and July 2022.

The Mexican National Guard seized 2.83 million rounds, 14,722 magazines, and 128 rifles of different calibers, six .50 caliber sniper rifles and 19 machine guns in a March bust that took place around 200 miles south of Arizona, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation.