ATF intelligence has shown that some of the firearms sold from X-Caliber were used by cartel gunmen against Mexican police and the Mexican army.
Six guns were traced to alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel, who were rounded up shortly after Mexican police captured alleged drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman in May. An assault rifle traced to X-Caliber also turned up in a cache found after eight federal policemen were killed and three others wounded in a gun battle in Culiacan, according to the ATF.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, August 29, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 3 inches; 111 words Type of Material: Correction
Weapons smuggling: An article in Section A on Aug. 10 about guns being smuggled into Mexico and used by narcotics traffickers said that "high-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico." The guns purchased in the U.S. are semiautomatic or conventional firearms. It also stated that Mexicans cannot legally own firearms. Mexicans can own some types of firearms, but most high-caliber and advanced weapons such as those being smuggled in are restricted to the military and law enforcement. Also, the name of a suspect arrested in May was misstated as Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. The suspect was Guzman's cousin, Alfonso Gutierrez Loera. Guzman remains at large.
Gun shows have become particularly troublesome. There, traffickers have their pick of weapons: AK-47s, AR-15s and the FN 5.57-caliber pistol known as "asesino de policia," or "cop killer."
"You see the Sinaloan cowboys come in," said Mangan, who browses the shows. "You see them with their ammunition belts and their ammunition boots. You can see the dollies being rolled outside to their cars.
"Why do they need the high-powered guns? Because the Mexican military is armed too, and they need to pierce that armor."
Sometimes it's the ammunition that tips agents off. In November 2006, an agent in street clothes was talking to a dealer at Kirkpatrick's Guns & Ammo, less than a mile from the border in Laredo, Texas. He spotted two men repackaging more than 12,000 rounds of ammunition they had just purchased.
An investigation later led to the arrest of Carlos Alberto Osorio-Castrejon and Ramon Uresti-Careaga, both Mexican citizens in the United States illegally.
Osorio pleaded guilty to being an illegal immigrant in possession of ammunition and was given 10 months in prison. Uresti was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 15 months in prison.
The ammunition, the judge told Uresti and the court, "was going to somebody in Mexico involved in some illegal activity -- drug trafficking, alien smuggling perhaps. Or something else."
Just up the road from Kirkpatrick's, past the taquerias and the Mexican insurance offices, there is yet another gun shop.
"Call me Rocky," said the man who runs Border Sporting Goods. He advertises "What We Don't Have, We Can Get." He sells guns and ammunition and reloading and hunting equipment. He personally owns more than 100 firearms.
He blamed Mexico for the gun trafficking. "It is not doing enough to stop it," he said. "They are a crooked country." He said U.S. gun laws were too easily broken. "A crook could care less how many laws you have."
