By Clarence Walker, Investigative Crime Journalist  - The New Criminologist.
 

* Editor's note: Prior to publication of this story the U.S. government arrested 755 members of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel on Feb. 25th 2009

The ongoing story is  a  "Behind the Scenes" series  about  U.S. Government Crisis  involving International Drug Trafficking, Drug Cartels and Illegal Firearm Organizations.
 
"Gun play can be carried out in many ways, either, by Russian Roulette, or, in a more profitable way by those who smuggle guns into foreign land that falls into the hands of hired killers, where firepower and bloodshed overrule the power of man's written law... and when outlaws ignore man's law they create their own rules to corrupt and pervert the law of the land....thus, the face of evil becomes the rule of law."                

 Journalist Clarence Walker.  (Copyright Quote 2009).

Houston, Texas: A population of nearly four million people, Houston is the  fourth largest city in the United States.
 
Known throughout  the nation  as H-town, this metropolitan city is a diverse mix of  American born citizens and foreigners, with an overwhelmingly  large hispanic population.  This unique diversity, among citizens, with various spoken languages in english and foreign dialect brings forth a fine blend of rich culture and heritage.
 
Houston is home to many historical sports arenas, the fabluous Houston Astrodome built in 1965, the Summit, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and the Reliant Stadium. Nasa's Johnson Space Center is the city's aeronautics facility; the only place in the world where visitors can watch astronauts train for space missions.
 
Deep in the heart of this Bayou city are the world's renowned medical centers; Hermann Hospital, Ben Taub, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Children's Hospital. These facilities are located south of downtown near the exclusive Museum District where many cultural institutions attracts 7 million visitors a year.
 
During the 1970s, Houston's most profound success became known as the Texas oil boom -an industry that created a pipeline of prosperity and riches for investors; an industry that, like a magnet, drew Americans and foreigners from all walks of life in search of jobs following the phenonmonal success of the Arab oil Embargo.
 
A  southern city inside a  'big' city,  a popular folk lore echoes among Houstonians that says,  "if people cannot make it in Houston, they can't make it nowhere".
 
Behind the skylines of Houston, lurking in the shadows, are lawbreakers from the underworld making their way into the 'big time' world of a multi-billion-dollar a year gun smuggling business - a business (on a nationwide scale) more lucrative than the Enron  scandal, now remembered as the biggest financial fraud in American history.

Houston's gun smuggling business  is an organized crime operation financed from the deep south by the world's most notorious Mexican drug cartels aka Narco gangsters. 

Mexican drug cartels are currently at war with the Mexican government over distribution of illegal narcotics into the United States and they need guns from the U.S. to fight back.
 
But there's a major problem in Mexico. Here's why: Guns in Mexico are not very easy to buy.  Only two handguns and limited rifles are allowed for Mexican nationals to own. Meanwhile, a person using photographic identification can buy up to 50 or more weapons within 72 hours in certain states throughout the United States.

Government agents busted a South Texas smuggling ring where the main leader had buyers to purchase more than 100 guns in one day! American-made guns are in demand.

"Right now, we know Texas is the number one source of weapons smuggled into Mexico; most of them coming from  Houston and Dallas," says, Special-Agent-in-Charge, Dewey Webb, of ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms). ATF statistics affirms Webb's statement. A Dallas Morning News story said, "in 2007, half of the 14,111 firearms recovered in Mexico and traced back to Texas came from Houston and Dallas".
 
The news article indicated Houston was number#1, with 3,820, and Dallas, 3, 358.  "Texas is the biggest supplier of guns that make their way into Mexico", said Tom Crowley, an ATF special agent. "That's both because of the long border from Mexico into Texas and the number of gun dealers in the state".
 
At a Border Enforcement Task Force held last year in Houston, Julie Meyers, the Assistant Secretary(Department of Homeland Security) for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said, "The illegal trade of arms has grown into a tremendous avalanche".
 
Illegal firearms smuggled from the United States into Mexico, according to state and federal law enforcement, "has grown into an estimated $10 billion a year or more industry". And many gun players on the opposite side of the U.S. Mexico border are dedicated to the game, where fortunes are being made supplying Mexican drug cartels with American bought assault guns prohibited in Mexico.
 
Government officials have the proof. After Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office, according to U.S. ATF and the Mexican Attorney General's office, as of 2008, over 28,000 guns, 15,000 automatic-assault rifles, 3 million rounds of ammunition, hundreds of grenade launchers, and over 2,000 hand grenades, were recovered in Mexico.

"In more than 90% of guns seized at the border or after drug raids and homicide shootings in Mexico, the guns were traced back into the United States," an ATF report stated. Critics say if the United States and Mexico cannot control the mass invasion of illegal aliens coming into America then how can the law from both sides of the border stop the pipeline of  firearms bought legally in the U.S. but smuggled illegally back into Mexico?

President Barack Obama discuss drug war strategy with Mexico President Felipe Calderon.

Before probing further into the world of illegal arms shipped across U.S. borders, which fall into the hands of organized crime drug gangsters, it is notably important to explain the root cause of why the cartels have armed themselves with the most sophisticated weapons on the planet to fight  a brutal, bloody war against the Mexican government. But the answer is simple: It's about the illegal narcotics business that pours billions of dollars into the hands of the cartels.
 
...."The Price of Freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, at any time, and with utter recklessness"....                            

                                                                                             Robert A. Heinlen
 
Mexico state is in chaos, a country, lawmakers say, on the verge of collapse.

The stakes are high. It is a war about drug profits for the cartels, and for democracy and surivival on the part of the government whose mission it is to destroy the narco gangsters, one by one. 

When lawyer, Felipe Calderon, became President of Mexico in 2006, he immediately ordered the Mexican military, state and federal police to attack the cartels, particularly the dominant groups identified as the Sinaloa, Gulf, Tijuana, Juarez and the Zetas.
 
Armed with goldmines of cash, former military officers on the payroll as hired killers, teenaged killers on the same payroll, high-level corrupt government officials taking bribes, a network of shady bankers across the globe, close ties with International Crime Organizations and major suppliers of weapons and hand-grenades, and, overall, an insatiable American demand for drugs - Mexican drug cartels have transformed into well-equipped, well organized, technologically advanced, highly mobile armies.

"It's a war zone," Webb County Sheriff, Rick Flores, based in Laredo, told ABC news in New York. "We've got level three body armor. They got level four. We've got cell phones. They've got satellite cell phones that we cannot tap into."

At the border, agents carry .40 glocks, the drug gangsters carry machine guns and are able to ignite a hand-grenade attack at will.
 
Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, recently told The New York Times he ordered additional border security plans to be implemented this summer as kidnappings and killings have spilled over from Mexico into  U.S. territory, located in South Texas, Arizona, and California.

Even the U.S. State Department issued a warning to Americans who visit Mexico on tourist vacation.

"Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in violent attacks in cities across the country by drug cartels. The report further said: "In recent years dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico by criminals and organized crime criminals. Many of these cases remain unsolved. Common-sense precautions necessary".
 
During Vicente Fox's term as Mexico President, the arrest of major leaders of the Tijuana, Gulf, and Juarez cartels led to a power struggle as the narco-syndicates split into warring factions to control the lucrative drug trade routes into America. Internal wars between the groups weaken the  infrastructure, which created a power-play  among the gangsters that gave the Mexican government leeway to move in and capture or kill the low-level or high-level players in the drug game. But the cartels are fierce and destructible. They fought back. Violence raged out of control. 

Since Calderon declared war  against the cartels almost three years ago, thousands have been murdered. Shoot-outs in broad daylight, mass executions, beheadings, bodies dissolved into acid, and the assassinations of rivals and suspected police informants were routine. Those murdered were police officers, soldiers, newspaper journalists, politicians, government prosecutors and innocent bystanders caught in crossfires.
 
"It's been a fierce bloodbath", says Felipe Gonzales, President of the Senate Public Commission. "The drug traffickers wouldn't be so dangerous if they weren't able to buy these weapons from the United States".

Despite thousands of lives lost, President Calderon's military has continually attacked the dangerous narco gangsters. He has promised "to keep fighting organized crime without pause or mercy." 

At a recent Army day speech in Monterrey, Calderon called on all Mexicans to "stand behind our Army's fight against this common enemy". 

"When we've recovered the rule of law and local authorities are capable of fighting this scourge, then the army will have completed its mission".

Firepower and Bloodshed: Drug War Casualty. A Narco Gangster Shot to Death by Rival Drug Gangs. ©Crimefilenews.com

Most violence between the rival cartels stretches across the areas of Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Rio Bravo, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo,  Reynosa, and smaller Texas cities near the U.S. border.

Mexico drug trade analysts said one war broke out when Mexico's most-wanted fugitive cartel leader, Joaquin "shorty" Guzman, declared war on drug baron Vicente Carillo Fuentez and the Gulf cartel joined the battle between the Fuentez and Guzman organization. Now they are fighting each other over lucrative drug territory at the border in Laredo Texas, and the government is fighting them.  

Highly coveted entry points in Laredo, which lead into the United States are collectively known as the 'Plaza'. Starting from Laredo, the Plaza routes proceed from the U.S./Mexico border into other cities where aliens, terrorists, and drugs are stashed prior to transport to designated places in the U.S.

Not only the major drug cartels but other criminal organizations in need of smuggling contraband through these controlled routes are required to pay a tax to the dominant cartel that controls the Plaza. The Sinaloa cartel rebuffed the Gulf cartel's domination of the Southwest Texas Plaza following the 2003 arrest of Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas.
 
"You have a number of the drug cartels that are in an all-out war to gain control of this area," said John Montoya of the U.S. Border Patrol. "The Laredo area is the key ingress into the United States. It's called a gateway city, not only into Mexico but into the U.S. as well. They use I-35 to transport illegal narcotics and to set up their infrastructure and operational bases not only on the Mexican side but on the U.S. side."
 
Each day, an estimated 6000 trucks or more carrying 40 percent of all Mexican exports pass through Laredo. The cartels use the trucks, warehouses and the interstate to move cocaine, marijuana and methanthetamine that makes its way into the United States.
 
"It's a booming business worth $10 million a day," according to a senior agent at the Drug Enforcement Agency.

T.J. Bonner, President of the National Border Patrol Council, reported 1,076 assaults against Border agents in 2008, mostly from organized crime networks transporting drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.
 
"It's a war," ATF agent, Bill Newell, explains. "It's a war between the drug cartels and the Mexican government. And the weapons of war are the weapons they buy here in the United States."

Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, the kingpin of the Gulf Cartel extradicted to the U.S. in 2004. He is awaiting federal trial on multiple drug charges in Houston Texas. Recently, a nephew of Osiel Cardenas was murdered in Houston. ©USDOJ.GOV

Ineffective gun laws in the U.S. and the lack of severe penalties for violaters, have created a gateway for gun smugglers working for drug cartels to buy and transport the most powerful weapons available on the market.

From AK-47s to .50 caliber rifles capable of penetrating body armor; weapons easily shipped across the border into Mexico where the mark up value exceeds up to 200-300 percent. Drug syndicates recruit smugglers from different cities along the Southwest Mexico - U.S. border that leads into the state of Mexico. Places like South Texas, Arizona, Southern California and New Mexico are known by the underworld as 'smugglers' paradise'.
 
Depending on what size and type of weapon, a smuggler or 'strawbuyer' can make between $4000 or $5000 for heavy duty military style weapons. On average, smuggled artillery of a lower grade can bring a gun player around $400 and $800.
 
Most  weapons in demand by the cartels and drug gangsters are: (1) Colt(AR-15) .223 caliber assault rifle (2) AK-47 machine gun (3) M4-carbine rifles (5) FN Herstal 5.7 mm pistol (6) Tec-9 (7) Glock .9mm
 
Particularly alarming are the sales of U.S. Belgian-made FN-57 pistols.

"This weapon fires bullets capable of penetrating the most effective body armor in military service around the world today," according to the Remtek Weapons web site.

FN-57s' sell for $800-$1000 each at dozens of gun stores and pawn shops located just a few hours drive from Mexico, near the U.S. border.
 
Drug gangsters have used the F-57s pistols  to kill several Mexican police officers. Among them, Mexico city policemen Felix Perez and Jose Rodriguez. Both officers were slain in May 2007, when masked gunmen fired the F-57s, piercing the officers' bullet-proof vests. They died instantly.

"These days the narcos think nothing of killing us for no reason other than marking their territory," one police commander said after seeing fellow officers murdered.
 
"U.S. laws allow citizens to have war-like guns",  Mexico Attorney General, Medina Mora, complained during an interview with reporters following the shooting. "We have to find a more effective way of stopping these arms flowing into the country and giving these gangsters such signficant powers."
 
"While drugs are being smuggled north, guns are going south," said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at Rand Corporation.
 
"The same routes that are being used to traffic drugs north - and the same organizations who control these routes, are the same ones who control the money and the cash that proceeds into the south with the guns and the ammunition, " ATF agent, Bill Newell, told a CNN reporter.
 
A 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment, released on December 15th 2008, has the U.S. Department of Justice stating that Mexican drug traffickers: "Represent the Greatest Organized Crime threat to the United States."

With that statement, the Justice Department acknowledges that Mexican drug cartels are the number#1 criminal enemy of the U.S. government - a position held in the past by Irish, Italian, Russian and Colombian criminal enterprises including  Al-qaida and other foreign terrorist groups.
 
Guillermo Fonseca, Mexico's regional legal attache for the West Coast, told CNN the violence in his country is problem "number one" - and that police in his country are outgunned.

He explained that the Mexican police lack heavy firepower against the cartels. Drug cartels and their enforcers are armed with heavy hitting weapons like .50 calibers that are capable of piercing bullet-proof armor.

Fonseca further said, "drug cartels and criminals have the advantage in this war."

"Part of the solution," he points out, "is for the United States to give Mexico more information about who is selling these guns illegally in the United States. Then Mexico could go after the buyers".

Such intelligence is not always easy to acquire because where there is a demand, there are underworld sources to supply that need. 
 
Mexico Gun Laws
 
Canadian authorities who occasionally find weapon violators at border check points, instead of always making an arrest simply prohibits the violater from entering Canada.

Mexico gun laws are another story. Laws are strict, violaters punished severely. At the U.S. Embassy in Mexico a warning sign written in bold letters, reads:  "Don't carry a knife, not even a pocketknife, on your person in Mexico."

If you are caught with weapons or ammunition you will go to jail and face up to 30 years in prison! The warning further implies, "being ignorant of Mexico laws will not grant you leniency. Leave your firearms, ammunition, and knives at home. Don't bring them into Mexico."

A testament of Mexico tough gun laws happened years ago when an American citizen spent five years in a Mexican jail after police found a single bullet casing in his vehicle.

George Iknadosian, 47, owner of the X Caliber Gun Store in Phoenix Arizona, was arrested last year for selling over 600 assault weapons to undercover ATF agents. Prosecutors say Iknadosian knew the weapons were illegally bought on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. Iknadosian, currently on trial, has been charged in Federal court with forgery, fraud, money laundering and operating a criminal syndicate. Mexican and U.S. authorities said in one incident eight Federales were ambushed in Mexico by drug gangsters who used several weapons bought from Iknadosian's gun store to kill the officers. ©Arizona Republic.

Powerful automatic weapons and military assault weapons are sold daily in America and the Mexican government, with the exception of the Mexican militiary, forbid their nationals to own such weapons. 

For American citizens, these particular weapons are as easy as candy to come by. And the right to possess heavy action weapons that are forbidden in other countries is the law of the land under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly states that "rights shall not be infringed upon."
 
There's much blame to go around for the ceaseless pipeline of illegal weapons trafficked into Mexico. Two years ago, Reuters news service reported that Mexico Attorney General, Eduardo Medina Mora, ridculed American gun laws. "I think the American (gun) laws are absurd because they... make it easy for citizens to acquire guns."
 
Under Article 10 of Mexico law and similar, such as the U.S. constitution,  Mexican nationals have a 'Right to keep and Bear Arms for lawful purposes' but Mexican gun laws are much tougher than U.S. gun laws.

Mexican gun law allows their citizens to buy low caliber weapons for home or property but they are not allowed to purchase military-type weapons.

High caliber military weapons are reserved for the exclusive use of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and National Guard. In essence, when Mexican citizens buy weapons for home protection they must first register the weapons with the Mexican defense department. Handguns cannot be larger than .38 or .380 caliber, a rifle, no higher grade than a .22. And for hunting purposes, a long barrel 12 gauge shotgun should not be longer than 25 inches.
 
Military type guns and high powered rifles like AK47s, M16s, 223 carbines,  .50 calibers, or the high level assault weapons like those purchased in the U.S. and smuggled into Mexico, are not allowed for Mexican citizens.
 
Supporters of  U.S. Brady gun laws  would love to adopt this provision of the Mexican gun law. There is one legal gun store located in Mexico city and once a person qualify to buy a gun it takes one month for approval to allow the seller to release the weapon to the buyer.

In most U.S. states,  gun law requires, if the buyer is approved, that the gun is released within 24 hours, or in some states less than 30 minutes. But here's another strict rule: Under Mexican law, after a buyer purchases either two handguns or 10 rifles, within an acceptable time period, the law eliminates the right for citizens to buy any more guns. Which, in fact, means a person is in violation of the law if they possess more than two handguns or 10 rifles.

Another rule: Mexican law forbids firearm owners to carry guns in public and unless authorized for hunting purposes guns are required kept at home. Meanwhile in most soutnern states U.S. law allow citizens to carry concealed weapons. Although U.S. government and state enforcement agencies work hand-in-hand with Mexican officials against drug trafficking, the downside involving the illegal gun smuggling trade is what many attribute to lax gun laws in the U.S. and the strict gun laws in Mexico, which drives the cross-border gun trade.
 
Mexican officials shift much of the blame involving the weapons possessed by the gangsters against the government due to easy access in the United States for individuals to buy heavy duty arms and smuggle them into Mexico where they wind up in the hands of gangland killers.
 
Mexican Attorney General, Medina Mora, issued a dire warning last year at a news conference: "If the U.S. would stop the flow of weapons into Mexico the equation would change rapidly here. We need the U.S. to stay committed in this war to reduce the flow and demand of weapons." 
  
A study by Mexican and U.S. officials estimated 2,000 or more illegal weapons enter into Mexico from the U.S. on a daily basis. In 2008, the U.S. Federal government estimated 8000 guns recovered in Mexico were traced back to U.S. sources, the total up by around1,000 guns recovered previously in 2007. 
 
Guns and Violence: Mexico Brutal Murders
 
....Destruction and misery are in their ways,  the way of peace have they not known: There's no fear of God before their eyes.

                                                                                               (Roman.3: 10-8)
 
Mexico is dripping with blood,  government corruption, illegal powerful weapons, death and destruction. With the drug wars among the cartels, and the cartels waging war against the government's intent to destroy their multi-billion-dollar empire, the war is one of survival. Not since the Mexican revolution of the early 1900s, when violence spilled across the border into the U.S., prompting Army General, John "Black Jack" Pershing,  to track down the elusive, legendary Pancho Villa, has Mexico and its drug violence been quite so threatening to the security of America. 
 
"The powerful Mexican drug cartels are a threat to the safety and security of U.S. communities and law enforcement officials who protect us",  Texas-Republican Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, told committe members in Washington, D.C.
 
As we know, the violence boils down quite simply to money and power among the major players in the dope game to dominate the illegal drug markets. 

Multi-billion-dollar profits made from heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine keeps the 'warriors at war' to feed the insatiable demand of American drug users.

Retired General, Barry McCaffrey, and former drug czar, said in recent news media statements, that "Mexico produces an estimated eight metric tons of heroin a year and 10,000 tons of marijuana."

McCaffrey also pointed out that "90% of all U.S. cocaine comes from Mexico as well as being the dominant source of methamphetamine for the U.S."  He further added, "drug cartels earn more than $25 billion a year and repatriate more than $10 billion a year in bulk cash into Mexico from the U.S."
 
The National Drug Intelligence Center reported;  "Mexican Cartels are the predominate smugglers, transporters, and wholesale distributors of illegal narcotics into the United States." 

"They expanded their control over the distribution of these drugs in areas once heavily controlled by Colombian and Dominican criminal groups."
 
A Justice Department report issued last year concluded that a federal and state narcotics operation, extending over a period of 10 years, uncovered the fact that Mexican drug trafficking organizations now operate in 195 American cities, a significant increase of only 50 active cities reported in 2006.
 
Despite the U.S. assistance of $400 million dollars 0f a $1.4 billion  aid package given to Mexican President Felipe and $3.9 billion of Mexico funds provided to Calderon to mount attacks against the fierce cartels to bring them to justice, none of the most intelligent minds can visualize an end or at least a sembalance of control to stem the tide of drug-related violence.

As each day passes, the ongoing war over drug profits continually defies imagination in terms of the sheer horror it leaves behind. And the body count keeps rising. During 2008, as we have seen, the Mexican attorney general's office reported approximately 6000 Mexican nationals killed in narco-related violence; these figures doubled from 2,700 murders in 2007.

 
World's Most Wanted Fugitive, Drug Trafficker and Murderer, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is the head of Mexico Sinaloa Drug Cartel. He recently made the Forbes Magazine list as one of the world's richest men.

At the beginning of 2009, the murder rate began to rise again. The first cartel execution took place shortly after midnight. On January 27th, El Universal, a prominent Mexico-based newspaper, reported that after January 1st, police have already documented 400 cartel-related executions. As unbeliveable as it sounds, that is 400 deaths within a single month!
 
Mexican Cartels hire death squads to orchestrate executions. Their notoriety sends shock waves throughout the Mexican communities where most cartel violence takes place. They are known as 'merchants of death', or,'sicarios-the hitmen', including the Zetas' group. 

These notorious assassins kill in diabolical fashion and their sadistic, barbaric nature has terrorized Mexican citizens into submission. A terroristic tactic the cartels most favor includes decapitating rival gangsters, informants and police officers. Occassionally,  when a hitman take out a policeman or military officer, the officer' badge is stuffed into his mouth. As if following a horror film script, the gangsters use other creative tactics to murder: brutal beatings, torture to death, headless corpses thrown from of vehicles onto busy streets, victims' stuffed alive into 55 gallon, gas-filled drums and lit afire.
 
Undoubtedly they kill to send a frightening message, such as when posting videos of executions on YouTube, the internet social networking site.

In another incident, investigators documented a scene so gruesome only the imagination of a Stephen King could have written the script.

On September 6, 2006, masked gunmen barged into a nightclub in the Michoacan area and rolled five decapitated heads onto the dance floor. A sign left among the carnage read, "know this is divine justice."
 
"The hyperviolence, the grotesque acts of decaptitating  bodies, dumping bodies in schoolyards, is the work of what I call the terrorist mafias," said John P. Walters, former White House Drug Policy Chief. Walters pushed for the $400 million in U.S. aid to Mexico to fight the cartel's drug war. The first installment of the aid was released on December 3, 2008.
 
"There is a new and different violence in this war," Vic Clark Alfaro told the Washington Post newspaper.

Alfaro, founder of the Binational Center for Human Rights, explained,  "Each method is now more brutal, more extreme than the last. To cut off the heads? They are going to the edge of what's impossible for a human being to do." 

Having studied and written extensively about narco-violence in Mexico, Investigative Journalist, Clarence Walker, says, "the extreme cartel's use of violence is pure psychological warfare designed to scare Mexican citizens into losing confidence in President Calderon's efforts to defeat them." 
 
Wherever controversy arises, there is a double-edged sword. Both sides cut deep. American investigators and political lawmakers insist the Mexican government cannot lay all the blame on U.S. gun laws for all the illegal weapons smuggled into Mexico.

Former assistant Mexico attorney, General Eduardo Valle, told a Christian Science Monitor reporter, "There's less control [along Mexico's southern border] and more routes."

"This is the part no one talks about. Even if 90 percent of the guns that end up in Mexico originated from the U.S., some weapons would still arrive via Central and South America brought in by big-time arms dealers."
 
Valle was referring to decades of corruption among Mexican officials at the U.S. - Mexico border, where tons of traffic move back and forth, north and south.

The National Defense Commission issued a 2007 report accusing Mexican Customs agents of allowing illegal arms into Mexico. During a press conference, Chief Juan J. Bravo, of Mexico's Customs Department, vowed to implement new plans "to modernize the Customs division to help prevent gun smuggling." 

Congressman C. Sandoval, a commission member, told the Mexican press,  "The basic issue is that guns are sold legally on the U.S. side."

"The corruption in Customs, and the incapacity of the Mexican state to control it allows illegal guns to pass right through."
 
Merchants of Death: Firearms sold in Houston Linked  to Drug Cartels
 
Court documents, including ATF records, indicated that the ATF initiated the Houston-based investigation, Project Gunrunner, after a thorough audit of gun sale records at targeted stores.

Agents working closely with federal Mexican police traced approximately 328 weapons bought in Houston by cell members connected with Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Weapons recovered in Houston, based on serial numbers were used in Mexico by gangsters to kill police, government officials, rival gang members and innocent bystanders.

Having recovered thousands of illegal hi-powered weapons bought in Houston and Dallas, a law enforcement official issued a statement: "There's no other source for the guns," said Francesca Perot, a Houston-based ATF spokeswoman. "It's not rocket science -it's cliche. The weapons came from here."

Mexican police stand guard over weapons and military explosives confiscated from drug cartels. © Mexico Foreign Press.

During a 15-month period between 2006-2007, there were 22 gun players in the Houston area who paid $352,134 in cash for deadly weapons.
 
Investigators discovered weaponry in the following locations:
 
(1) A Bushmaster (m-16) carbine assault rifle was bought at Academy Sporting Goods store on South Gessner. This same weapon was used in Acapulco, Mexico, by drug gangsters who disguised themselves as soldiers and killed four police officers and three secretaries.
 
(2) Another Bushmaster carbine sold at Carter's Country gun store in July, 2006, and recovered two months later in Central Mexico after a gunman used it to kill a prominent cattleman.
 
(3) ATF further told Houston Chronicle reporters that they had identified three different cell groups working for drug cartels. Among these groups, ATF discovered that they bought 45 assault rifles at seperate Carter's Country stores in Houston. Some of these same weapns were used in a shootout in March, 2007, where 11 narco gangsters were killed in the Guatemala highlands.
 
(4) In early November, 2008, Mexican agents found 500,000, rounds of ammunition and 540 guns at a stash house in Reynosa, Mexico. Again, through serial number tracking many of the guns were purchased in Houston.
 
(5) In 2006, ATF arrested a 25-year-old, unemployed machine operator named John Hernandez.  Hernandez bought five bushmasters in one day from a Carter's gun store located on Treaschwig road. ATF also nabbed a runner working for Hernandez who paid $42, 763 in cash for 37 guns. This gun player scored a cache of weapons when he simultaneously purchased eight bushmasters in one day on May, 12th 2007.
 
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Andrew Molchan, a director of the Professional Gun Retailers Association, said, "members are aware fraudulent buyers are out there - and they are encouraged to ask more questions than the law requires to evaluate customers." 
 
U.S. Government Strike Back: ATF Takes Down a Major Arizona Dealer

In May, 2008,  ATF nailed one of the biggest gun players in the U.S., who supplied Mexican drug cartels with assault weapons. 

George Iknadosian, 46, owner of  X Caliber gun store located in Phoenix was indicted in federal court on numerous gun-violation charges, which included conspiracy, fraud, running an illegal enterprise, money laundering, and misconduct involving firearms. Also indicted in the scheme were Hugo Gamez, 26, and his brother, Ceasar Gamez, 27. Both brothers bought several weapons from Iknadosian' store to ship back into Mexico for resell to drug organizations.
 
An ATF news release reported that Iknadosian sold,  "more than 650 AK-47s assault weapons to Mexican drug gangs responsible for hundreds of murders."
 
In a meeting with ABC news reporters, ATF supervisor, Peter Forcelli  stated "Mr. Iknadosian willingly sold these weapons and even gave our guys, who were posing as buyers, undercover tips on how to evade the police."
 
Forcelli, a former NYPD (New York Police Department) Bronx homicide detective, added a grim note,   "We know of 650 assault weapons he sold....but by the time the case is done, it will be well over a thousand."
 
Even one of America's Most Wanted drug bosses wound up with one of Iknadosian's weapons, which he illegally sold from his store in Arizona.

 
Nov.2008: Police stand guard around the largest seizure of weapons and explosive devices connected with Mexico Drug Cartels. Over 500 assault weapons, hundreds of hand grenades and sniper rifles were found after police arrested one of U.S. & Mexico most wanted drug lords, Jaime Gonzales Duran aka 'El Hummer'. © AP News.

When DEA and Mexican federales arrested Sinaloa drug cartel leader, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, in January, 2008, police found a colt .38-caliber pistol hidden in Leyva's waistband.
 
A trial date has not been set for Ikandosian and co-defendants. They are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law.
 
Back in April, 2008, ATF arrested Victor Varela, a Juarez drug cartel member who operated an interrelated firearms trafficking network within the organization. Varela's operation involved using 'straw buyers' to purchase weapons in Texas and Arizona.
 
Michael A. Golson Sr., a Dallas-based ATF agent stated in a news release,  "this is evidence of the cooperation by ATF and Mexican authorities to combat illegal gun trafficking and the violence that ensues from it."
 
In September, 2008, in South Texas, ATF arrested Emmanuel Ramirez, 25, and Carlos Garcia, 21. In a 16-count indictment, the allegations accused Ramirez of  recruiting  'straw buyers' to buy several Beretta .9mm hanguns from Academy Sporting Good stores loated in the Rio Grande valley near McAllen and Brownsville Texas.
 
Prior to the massive Arizona bust, ATF, in 2003, took down a big-time gunplayer in Dallas, Texas. When they arrested Adan Rodriguez, who worked as a security guard but took a lucrative moonlight job recruited by the cartels to purchase weapons to ship into Mexico.

ATF followed a paper trail that showed the security guard  to have bought 152 firearms from a gunstore in Mesquite, Texas  including 78 Romanian-made assault rifles.

One of the pistols Rodriguez bought in Dallas was used in a gunfight between the cartels and police in Reynosa, Texas. During the gun battle, two federal police officers were shot down. Convicted on federal gun charges in 2004, a federal judge sentenced Rodriguez to 70 years in prison.
 
American Gun Laws....You Got Money....We Sell Guns---the Political Connections that Supply Violent Criminals, Drug Cartels, Organized Crime, and Terrorists Groups with 'Deadly Weapons'.

Under  most state and county laws within the United States, jurisdiction  identification is required for those under 21 to buy alcohol or cigarettes. But if an individual wants to buy a barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, often used by cartels in Mexico,  a weapon so powerful it has the capability to penetrate bullet-proof  armor, all it takes to buy this weapon is to attend, "one of 5,000 legal gun shows in the U.S. and hand over the cash."

Background checks are minimal. Unlike the age requirement of 21 to purchase cigarettes and alcohol, a dealer in most cases will sell guns minus the age. In some incidents, ATF documented cases of gun smugglers who bought heavy duty, military-style weapons at gun shows after showing phony identification supported by non-existent addresses.
 
In 2001, then-Assistant Attorney General, Eric Holder, wrote in a U.S. Justice department report,  "there are many 'chilling' examples of terrorists buying guns in America without proper background checks."

Government investigations and numerous arrests of foreign criminals bears him out. Terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida, Hezbollah and the IRA (Irish Republican Army) exploited loopholes in U.S. gun laws to purchase assault weapons from private sellers at gun shows.
 
In a radio debate with John E. Rosenthal, co-founder of  "Stop Handgun Violence", an NRA (National Rifle Association) official confirmed the organization opposes uniform criminal background checks of gun buyers due to fear of "shutting down gun shows."

For unqualified gun buyers, which comprises the criminal culture, consider this catch-22 loophole: Under current U.S. federal law, in 32 states a person  can buy concealed handguns and military-style assault weapons from private sources, without a criminal background check.
 
Gangsters, organized crime networks and drug cartels are well aware that gun restrictions are very unpopular in Texas. There's a popular rumor, around for years, that says, "If a politician wants to get unelected or never elected - just hint or mention threatening words to take citizen's "right to bear arms."
 
Example: President Bill Clinton passed a bill in 1994 to restrict ownership of certain kinds of assault weapons and for states to create a national system of background checks of gun buyers. The pendulum swung back in favor of killing the bill when George Bush Jr. defeated Al Gore in the 2000 presidential race.

Following Bush's controversial win over Gore, political experts said Gore's defeat was in part attributed to the gun owners perception of Gore as an anti-gun man.
 
Stephen Fischer, an FBI spokesman for the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) said,  "Anyone who sells a gun must notify NICS."

"Some people are denied to purchase a weapon."

Yet, there are flaws. There are no rules to limit the amount of guns a person can buy. 

Fischer added,  "What this means is a firearms trafficker can pay a qualified person with a clean record to buy hundreds of weapons at different stores."
 
One Texas gun owner told a Forth Worth Weekly Reporter,  "Maybe something should be in place in Texas to question some sales... How many AK-47s does a person need to have fun target shooting with?"
 
Government Progress and  Growing Violence: What future role will the U.S. Government play in Mexico's battle against Organized Crime Drug Cartels and Gun Smugglers?
 
There's no shortage of brutal violence in the land of Mexico, where the drug cartels resist government forces on a daily basis. Experts predict the drug-related violence and death, already at near unprecendented levels within the dawn period of 2009, will only worsen as Mexico President Calderon continues the assault on the heavily armed cartels.
 
Facing a long, tough battle  to alleviate tons of illegal drugs into the United States and countless of banned weapons smuggled into Mexico, what future role will the new administration of President Barack Obama play to help Mexico authorities make the border regions where organized crime ply their trade more safer for civilians?
 
Critics now say that Calderon's assault against the cartels might have been a mode of complete failure unless the government negotiate with the gangsters to legalize drugs. Calderon has promised to never negotiate with those he calls, "the enemies of Mexico."

Mexican Military after a bloody shootout in Michoacan Mexico: ©Mexico Foreign Press.

Former U.S. Ambassador for Mexico, Tony Garza, told a Dallas Morning Newspaper reporter,  "Calderon must, and will, keep the pressure on the cartels, but look, let's not be naive, there will be more bloodshed, and, yes, things will get worse before they get better. That's the nature of the beast." 

"The more pressure the cartels feel, the more they'll lash out like cornered animals." 

And, like deranged animals, the cartels keep striking back. 
 
U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia warned recently that, "an unstable Mexico could represent a homeland security problem of immense proportions to the United States."
 
In a December, 2008, report to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, former drug czar retired general, Barry McCaffrey, said,  "even the $1.4 billion assistance provided to Mexico by the Bush administration was barely a drop in the bucket."

McCaffrey emphasized that the $1.4 billion represented a mere fraction of the money spent on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
"The stakes in Mexico are enormous," McCaffrey stated. "Mexico is not confronting dangerous criminality - it is fighting for its survival against narco-terrorism; the challenge so complex, it will require sustained commitment and attention at the highest level of  our government."
 
Whats on the political agenda between the new U.S. President, Barack Obama, and Mexico President, Felipe Calderon? 

Since the U.S. government has declared Mexican drug cartels to be the number#1 organized crime threat to America, and the former Bush administration has already provided $1.4 billion in aid to help the Mexican government to battle the cartels, questions persist whether Obama will keep supporting Mexico in the war against the cartels.
 
Calderon and Obama met on January, 15, 2009, in Washington D.C. to  discuss the matters.
 
Noting the extraordinary relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, Obama said: "Not only did we talk about security along the border regions but also how the U.S. can be helpful in Mexico's efforts to have a comprehensive and thoughtful strategy to strenghten both countries."
 
Political critics aren't too optimistic: "Obama is busy with other pressing issues," said  Sanho Tree, a drug policy analyst for the Institute of Policy studies based in Washington, D.C.  "He just doesn't have the space to take on this other fight in Mexico and with lots of war-weariness and budget shock in Washington... who has the stomach to take on this Mexico drug war right now?"
 
"Probably not much will come of the meeting between Calderon and Obama," said Tomas Ayuso, Mexico Analyst for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. 

"Calderon was pleading for Obama to put Mexico at the top of his priority list, yet, given what Obama is facing, the Mexican drug war is not at the top of his agenda."

Still, Ayuso points out, the drug war situation in Mexico is serious and could get worse. "If this isn't addressed now, Mexico could descend into chaos." 
 
Ayuso explains, "the cartels have virtually unlimited funding, their coffers are overflowing, the shady economy in which they operate is booming, their operatives armed to the teeth, and the next step for the cartels is to set up a shadow government."
 
Ayuso concludes, "it's very easy for them to influence people. They say: 'Accept our bribes or we"ll kill you and your family.' It's pretty effective."
 
Despite insurmountable odds with the "enemies of Mexico and enemies of the United States" during the summit meeting with President Calderon, Obama pledged to Calderon to find ways to collabarate more effectively with Mexico to reduce drug-gang violence, organized drug cartels, and the smuggling of guns bought in Houston and other U.S. cities; guns that are shipped across the border into the hands of narco-terrorists and the cartels in Mexico.
 
U.S. Senate: New Firearms Trafficking Laws
 
U.S. Democrat Representative, Ciro D. Rodriguez, of San Antoino, Texas, introduced legislation on Tuesday, January 13th 2009, to assist law enforcement and Mexican authorities in continuing the crackdowns on the border and throughout U.S. cities against illegal firearms smuggling. 

Senators Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. (Democrat New Mexico) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, introduced similar legislation in the senate on Monday, January 12th.
 
"We must continue our work to stop the violence on both sides of the border. We are a long ways from keeping people along the border as safe as they deserve to be,"  Rodriguez said in a news conference.
 
"Narcotics trafficking organizations aren't confined by borders," Hutchinson said. "The increasing violence in Mexico is now a U.S. national security issue. The powerful Mexican drug cartels are a threat to the safety and security of U.S. communities, including our law enforcement officials who protect us."
 
Hutchinson expressed future vision, "This legislation takes an important step toward protecting our citizens from the terrorism of drug cartels."
 
The bill authorizes $15 million  in the fiscal years of 2010 and 2011 to expand the U.S. Department of Justice's Project Gunrunner Initiative, which is the ATF's southwest border pro-active investigations to deprive drug traffickers of firearms and reduce firearms-related violence on both sides of the border.
 
This new law allocates money for the ATF to hire, train and deploy 80 special agents, thus adding at least seven more Project Gunrunner teams in the border region to investigate and help individuals and organized crime syndicates that traffic weapons into Mexico.

Until recently, approximately 100 ATF special agents monitored the sales of 6,700 licensed gun sellers between Texas and San Diego, California.
 
The bill also authorizes $9.5 million in the fiscal years of 2010 and 2011 to enhance cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico. Of the $9.5 million, this money allows ATF to assign an additional 12 agents to work in the Mexican consulate to support Mexico's efforts to trace seized weapons and train Mexican law enforcement officials in anti-trafficking investigative techniques.
 
Mexico Attorney General, Eduardo Mora, sums it up best: "I say to my American counterparts... this war cannot be won by neither one of us alone."

"If we do not win it together, we will lose it together."
 
                                                   

                                                       End
 

Any comments about this story contact Journalist Clarence Walker: cwalkerinvestigate@gmail.com or 713-616-0385
 
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The following copyright News media publishers including U.S. and Mexico government sources used exclusively for this investigative  report are: (1) Houston Chronicle (2) Dallas Morning News (3) Fort Worth Weekly (4) ABCnews.com (5) CNN.com (6) Associated Press (7) U.S. Department Justice report. (8) Mexico Attorney General press release. (9) Gunpolicy.org (10) Washington Post (11) Christian Science Monitor (12) Houston-Top-News-Examiner.