Fast & Furious News -- ATF Arms Sinaloa in Quid Pro Quo Deal

More damning news from the Fast & Furious Gun-Running scandal.  Many have said this, but new information has come out supporting the fact that US officials that were purposely arming cartels had been given the green light for drug trafficking (specifically the Sinaloa Cartel) in exchange for information to take down rival cartels.

The explosive allegations are being made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, known as the Sinaloa Cartel’s “logistics coordinator.” He was extradited to the Chicago last year to face federal drug charges.

Zambada-Niebla claims that under a “divide and conquer” strategy, the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious in exchange for information that allowed the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to take down rival drug cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009 — during both Fast and Furious and Bush-era gunrunning operations — as long as the intel kept coming. READ MORE>>>

I'm not entirely sure why we'd be surprised by this news. Look at our history.  We created Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden to fight our enemies then they became our enemies.  Now we're doing the same thing.  Do we think it'd be better to have one ENORMOUS CARTEL South of the border or several smaller ones killing each other.  Our CIA trafficked in cocaine to finance operations in the 1980s.

The only thing we haven't done yet (at least that we know of) is send the CIA down to train the cartels.  Oh wait we did... Correction:  we used "Special Forces" to train Mexican federal agents who later changed sides and became the ruthless cartel known as the Zetas.

Guatemala to Further Limit Freedoms

This from InsideCostaRica.com: Guatemala Passes Gun Control Law

... the Guatemalan Congress approved the Weapon and Ammunition Control Law, considered essential to reduce violence.

The regulation reduces to one the four licenses previously granted to each citizen to buy armaments, and they are able now to buy three weapons instead of 12...

It also stipulated several requirements before granting the permit, including a clean criminal record and passing psychological assessment, income certification and proof of employment.

The legislation also set between five and 15 years of imprisonment for crimes like possession, export, import, or illegal sale of weapons and ammunitions...

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom welcomed the approval of the law and called it an important instrument to fulfill the National Security Program, which will be signed by the three state powers on April 15. READ MORE>>

Wow. Just wow, and those of you living in occupied America thought it was bad with your restrictions on .50BMG rifles and magazine limitations and Assault Weapons bans...

I will add that the stricter punishment on arms trafficking is good, even essential, but the 'income certification' and 'proof of employment' and even the 'psychological assessment' necessary to purchase and own one of their 3 firearms is a little too far.

Why after all, would there need to be an 'income certification' and 'proof of employment'? It appears at the surface that this rules out certain classes of people, i.e. the poor and unemployed.

I can only gather that part of this crack down on gun rights is a knee jerk reaction to the arms trafficking that constantly flows from Guatemala north into Mexico to provide arms for the cartel murderers.

Let's hope the people rally together and oppose this attack on their freedom to defend themselves.

NPR Report on Mexico Arms Trade

Props goes out to John Lott for this one.

I have previously linked to this Fox News story: "The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.."

Here is the way that NPR covered the issue...

Now mind you this was the April 3rd Edition... a few days after Fox News released their report finding that only 17% of guns used in crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

Wow, talk about a waste of money. Is there any doubt why 'Conservative' talk radio excels in so many ways (including daily listeners and money raised to support the station)? I'd never expect to hear this outright distortion of the truth on a real talk radio station.

I guess you get what you pay for and since the government pays for NPR you get a poor excuse for journalism.

Fox News Calls Bull on Mexico Myth

Props to Fox News for doing their journalistic duty and shedding light on this Myth LIE that's been promulgated in the news media.

You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States...

There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:

It's just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."

This is something I've been saying for quite a while. Why would a monumentally powerful drug cartel try to aquire arms at great cost and risk (purchasing them in the U.S. and smuggling them across the Mexican border) when they could use other cost effective and reliable means?

The Fox News exclusive report breaks it down for those of us that can't fathom weapons coming from anywhere other than the U.S.

So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:

-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.

-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.

I think the old adage is of pertinence here, Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.

What are the illegal guns being obtained by Mexican drug gangs?

John Lott always has good material, but this post is extremely insightful especially in light of AG Eric Holder's statement.

"...there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum."

You should've known that the media wasn't telling you the WHOLE truth when you read stuff like "the Mexican army also seized 23 assault rifles, 20 handguns, 23 grenades, two grenade launchers, a rocket launcher..." (LA Herald Tribune).

Somebody please show me a gun store in the U.S. that sells grenades and grenade and rocket launchers.

It just doesn't make sense.

This isn't some piddly NYC gang, this is the Mexican Cartels--they're the Mexican Mafia.

Their power and influence is only dwarfed (slightly) by their government. Why bring a few guns (that would have to be illegally converted and cleaned of any identifying marks) across the U.S. border at great risk and cost when you could bring shipping containers of them into the ports from overseas at a much lesser risk and cost?

Don't believe the media when they say that the availability of American guns are fueling the Mexican arms trade and the cartel wars.

For the real story read John Lott's post.