The day after El Mencho, one of Mexico’s most wanted drug lords, was killed in a predawn raid last week, Defense Minister Ricardo Treville Trejo told reporters that 80 percent of the weapons seized from cartels had been smuggled across the U.S. border.
With the help of U.S. intelligence agencies, Mexican security forces tracked El Mencho, whose real name is Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes and is also wanted in the U.S., to a property in Tapalpa, a mountain town in central-western Mexico. He was the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), known for its military-style arsenal and amassing enormous power in just 20 years.
So are most of these weapons actually produced in the United States? So what is Donald Trump’s administration doing about it?
What are the major drug cartels operating in Mexico, and how well armed are they?
Major drug cartels in Mexico include the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, and CJNG.
They are all heavily armed with military-style rifles, high-capacity magazines, and in some cases, explosives.
In particular, CJNG is notorious for its firepower, having shot down a Mexican military helicopter in 2015.
Both Mexican authorities and the U.S. government offered rewards to several cartel leaders, including Ismael Zambada Sicairos, known as “El Mayito Flaco,” who belonged to the La Mayiza faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, or “El Chapito,” a senior leader of the Sinaloa Cartel; Fausto Isidro Meza Flores – “El Chapo Isidro” – was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list in February. and Juan Reyes Mejia-Gonzalez (“R-1” or “Kiki”) of the Los Rojos faction of the Gulf Cartel, who received a US$15 million reward.
Since the February 22 raid that killed El Mencho, armed cartel members have carried out coordinated attacks on highways, police stations and contested areas across several states, leaving several people dead and causing widespread chaos.
What are Mexico’s gun purchasing laws?
Under Mexican federal laws on firearms and explosives, civilians can legally purchase limited firearms, such as handguns, .22-caliber rifles, and certain shotguns, and only through two military stores: DCAM in Mexico City and OTCA in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon. Buyers must undergo multiple government approvals and background checks. Military rifles are used only in the military.
Cartels circumvent these restrictions by sourcing most of their weapons illegally, primarily from the United States, where large-caliber rifles and high-capacity magazines are widely available, according to Benjamin Smith, a professor of Latin American history at the University of Warwick in England.
Some weapons are obtained through theft or corruption within Mexican security forces, but trafficking from the United States is key.
Smith said that just as drug embargo in the United States facilitates trafficking in Mexico and gun control in Mexico facilitates arms smuggling across the border, tight controls in one country can facilitate illicit trade in another.
Authorities estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 firearms are trafficked from the United States to Mexico each year to supply cartels.
These transactions are illegal because U.S. federal law prohibits the export of firearms to non-U.S. residents without approval from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), while Mexico’s federal laws on firearms and explosives prohibit the import of weapons without government approval. Violators face severe criminal penalties.
By smuggling firearms across the border, cartels violate both U.S. export laws and Mexican import laws, essentially creating a criminal network that operates outside of both legal systems.
Where do Mexican cartels get their weapons?
Cartels typically acquire weapons through a combination of straw buyers, unlicensed resellers, thieves, and professional brokers who source guns and ammunition from U.S. commercial markets, according to Annette Idler, associate professor of global security at the University of Oxford.
A straw purchase occurs when a person who is legally eligible to purchase a gun purchases a gun on behalf of someone who cannot legally purchase a gun in order to avoid a background check. In the United States, this practice is explicitly prohibited under the Gun Control Act of 1968. It makes it illegal to provide false information to a federally licensed gun dealer or to purchase a gun for a person who is prohibited from owning a gun.
Weapons are typically transported by land, often disassembled guns in small, hidden shipments to reduce detection, Idler told Al Jazeera.
In February, Mexico’s Defense Ministry said it had seized 137,000 .50-caliber rounds of ammunition from cartels since 2012. These high-performance bullets, which can penetrate vehicles and body armor, are designed for heavy rifles and machine guns, and nearly half are traced to the Army Ammunition Plant in Lake City, Missouri, the largest manufacturer of military small arms in the United States.
What has Mexico done about gun smuggling from the United States?
In 2021, the Mexican government filed a $10 billion lawsuit in U.S. federal court in Massachusetts against several major U.S. gun manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson, Beretta USA, Colt, and Glock. They say the companies’ business practices facilitate the illegal flow of firearms into Mexican drug cartels and exacerbate violence in the country.
The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which handed down a unanimous ruling on June 5 that upheld the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a 2005 federal law that protects gun manufacturers from being sued for crimes committed with guns. The law barred Mexico’s claims against the manufacturers because the government failed to prove that they “aided and abetted” the sale of illegal weapons to traffickers.
Mexico has taken similar measures against private dealers. In October 2022, the government sued five Arizona gun stores: Diamondback Shooting Sports, SNG Tactical, Loan Prairie (The Hub Target Sports), Ammo AZ, and Sprague’s Sports. It was alleged that they routinely facilitated straw buying and arms trafficking to criminal gangs. The case is pending.
What has the United States done to address this problem?
U.S. authorities have been trying to stop the flow of firearms into Mexico.
From 2018 to 2021, ATF conducted Project Thor, a multi-agency intelligence program targeting U.S.-based gun trafficking networks that supply Mexican cartels.
We identified dozens of trafficking incidents and mapped the supply chains moving weapons south. President Joe Biden’s administration withdrew funding for the plan in 2022, although neither the Justice Department nor the ATF have publicly explained why.
The United States tried other methods as well.
From 2009 to 2011, the ATF ran Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed more than 2,000 firearms to be purchased illegally in the United States and smuggled to Mexican cartels. The goal was to trace the weapons to high-ranking members of the cartel.
Instead, many were lost because the ATF greatly underestimated the difficulty of tracking guns that entered the illegal market. Many have been used in violent crimes, including the 2010 killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. This has led to severe criticism of the operation.
In 2011, Humberto Benítez Trevino, then chairman of Mexico’s House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, said at least 150 injuries and killings were linked to weapons smuggled under U.S. operations. Mexican lawmakers condemned this as a violation of Mexican sovereignty.
The controversy intensified in 2011 when Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla of the Sinaloa Cartel filed a complaint in a U.S. federal court in Chicago, Illinois, claiming that his cartel had received preferential treatment from U.S. authorities to undermine its competitors.
U.S. officials have denied the claims, but Smith pointed out that U.S. anti-drug operations have historically involved forming cartels against one another.
Could the United States actually tactically arm some Mexican cartels?
According to Smith, it is highly unlikely that the United States would knowingly or tactically arm cartels like Jalisco. He explained, “It is possible that (the authorities) turned a blind eye to the arms trafficking of rival CJNG in order to obtain information about the Sinaloa Cartel, but there are no explicit plans to arm them.”
Past outcomes, such as large-caliber weapons reaching criminal groups during Operation Fast and Furious, were the unintended consequences of enforcement strategies rather than deliberate policies, he said.
Smith added that the United States could easily stop such smuggling through stricter regulations, but its failure to do so was a political choice influenced by domestic pressure and “the political expediency of blaming Latin Americans rather than Americans for cartel violence.”
According to Idler, the Mexican cartels’ current access to U.S. military ammunition, including ammunition from the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, is better explained by “market diversions and regulatory gaps” rather than intentional support from the United States.
What does it take to combat gun trafficking by Mexican cartels?
Effectively combating gun trafficking requires major changes in U.S. policies and priorities, Idler said.
She outlined a credible strategy: “Washington must treat southbound gun trafficking with the same urgency as it does northbound flows of drugs and people: strengthen oversight, invest in tracking and investigations, and frame cross-border security as a truly mutual obligation rather than a one-sided issue.”
She said addressing arms flows depends on continued oversight and coordinated action and cooperation between the United States and Mexico.
