Friday, July 8, 2011

What a surprise: Mexican cartel boss says he buys all of his guns from the USA

Image: Jesus Enrique Aguilar

I’ve written about this subject a couple of times in the last three years. One of the many claims by the NRA and other gun activists is that the Mexican cartels don’t get a significant amount of their guns from the U.S.

I’ve always taken the position that the U.S. has been a main provider of guns for the cartels. My columns were both vilified by numerous NRA websites, and websites operated by outright wackaloon gun lovers who threatened me for suggesting we need stronger gun laws. I’ve just got one thing to say to all of those smart asses…sit on this story and spin!

During an interview recorded by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Safety, Jesus Enrique Rejon, alias 'El Mamito,' told officials that the feared drug gang purchases all of its guns in the US.

In the interview (the video of which is available here), Mr. Rejon claims the group used to sneak the arms through border checkpoints, but stricter security measures have forced them to smuggle them across the Rio Grande. He also alleged that the Zetas’ rival Gulf Cartels have an easier time bringing weapons across the border. “It got harder, but we can still get them,” Rejon said. “Those in the Gulf Cartel get them a lot easier; we don’t know why. It’s impossible to buy them and smuggle them in a vehicle trunk, but they do it. There must be a deal somewhere. I don’t know.”

It has long been known that gun stores in the American Southwest are a significant source of weaponry to Mexican cartels, a topic that InSight Crime has covered extensively in its GunRunners report.

Story Here - By Geoffrey Ramsey -

Geoffrey Ramsey is a writer for Insight – Organized Crime in the Americas, which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region. Find all of his research here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave
Guns from the US went to Mexico in larger numbers because the ATF had a program that allowed and even encouraged illegal sales to suspected criminals. When gun store owners reported suspicious sales, they were told to let the sale proceed by the ATF. The idea was that somehow these weapons would be tracked and lead to higher ups in criminal empires. The problem was that once these guns crossed the border the ATF had no way to keep tabs on them. As a result these guns did turn up in crimes and at least one was used to kill a border patrol agent. There is currently a congressional investigation focused on why a system that was working to report suspicious sales was cast aside by the very agency tasked with making sure this didn't happen.

Rose said...

Way more to it than that... the text of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as the “Obama stimulus,” and discovered that an earmark of ten million dollars for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was rolled into the bill.

Part of that earmark came from House Resolution 495, the Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act of 2009. This bill explicitly included $15,000 in funding for Project Gunrunner.

That funding did indeed make it into the Obama stimulus act:
For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’, $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.
We need to know who pushed this Gunrunner funding into the Obama stimulus, and then the President must be made to formally admit – under oath if necessary – either he knew about Project Gunrunner all along… or he had absolutely no idea what was contained in the trillion-dollar stimulus package he boasted of passing without a single Republican vote....

Project Gunrunner Got Stimulus Money

That's for starters...

Rose said...

Too bad to check: Project Gunrunner was funded by … the stimulus

For an additional amount for ‘‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance’’, $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.

And to think, you guys say the stimulus didn’t produce anything. It produced guns for Mexican drug cartels, didn’t it? Says Ben Domenech, in a stroke of perfect black humor: “Shovel ready.”

Rose said...

But the REAL meat is still to come: Remember Obama's odd allegiance to the ousted bad guy in Honduras?

Maybe there's more to it than we knew" Two big developments have emerged in Gunwalker....ATF Director Kenneth Melson has indeed spilled his guts and testified on July 4th before Congressional investigators. Gunwalker goes all the way to Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and that walking manifestation of Incubus and Succubus, Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett. Further, Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea over at Sipsey Street Irregulars have broken news this morning that Holder/Clinton/Obama-Jarrett also were walking guns out of Florida into Honduras.

Here’s the money quote:

“There are emails in existence where (Special Agent in Charge Virginia) O’Brien has advised those involved that Tampa does not have to report their walked guns because Tampa FD is not a part of Southwest Border or Project Gunrunner.”

So there's more - how many enemies of America are we giving illegal weapons to?

And then trying to impose tougher gun laws here as a result... Remember Hillary's odd quote about all the guns in Mexico coming from the US? Surprise surprise - the government was the source.

Keep watching it - now you know what to look for. How high up will it go? Who will fall on the sword? The swordswallowers Union appears to be on strike though. the ATF director who was supposed to take hte fall has testified secretly to Congress.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dave, I'm wondering if (in the years that have passed since you wrote this post) it has ever occurred to you that US gun laws ONLY restrict LAWFUL gun owners. The government and the cartels (and any other criminals) will continue their illegal/unethical operations DESPITE any gun laws in existence.

In a word Dave, criminals do not follow the law - that's what makes them criminals.

Have a nice day.

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