What US-made weapons are coming into the hands of the Mexican cartels

Yesterday the government of Mexico has filed a complaint against 10 arms manufacturers and distributors in the United States (US).. The lawsuit charges the companies with nine counts, ranging from manufacturing “unreasonably dangerous” products to conscientious negligence, arguing that These companies produce and distribute the favorite weapons of the Mexican cartels, knowing that many of them end up in their hands.

Specifically, the trial presents three models of weapons which are “Weapons of choice” Mexican criminal organizations. According to the document presented to the United States Federal Court in Boston, Massachusetts, manufacturers assemble these guns in such a way as to include features that facilitate their military – and non-sporting – use.

These distributors present the weapons as being of “military style”, attracting the traffickers who put the weapons in the hands of the cartels. In addition, in assembly, they escape certain regulations on the sale of weapons to the United States by mixing foreign parts with American parts, stick military instruments on the civilian market.

On the other hand, there is also a serious problem with the distribution of these arms wholesalers. According to the documentation submitted, for years these companies sold disproportionately dangerous weapons to “Dealers” who have a long and proven history of trafficking across the Mexican border.

In general, the lawsuit accuses these companies of carrying out all these practices knowing that many of these weapons are not purchased for “sporting” purposes. 68% of weapons trafficked from the United States to Mexican cartels are produced by the accused companies.

Mexican government targets three models assembled, imported and sold by Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc. and Century International Arms, Inc.

A key moment for the American arms industry, when was in 2004, the federal ban on the sale of assault weapons expired inside the country. Hence, weapons such as the AR-15 from Colt. It is a modified assault rifle from the M-16, a light and powerful weapon It was first used by the US military during the Vietnam War.

Of these guns, a sheriff in Montgomery, Alabama said: “There is only one reason to own a weapon like this: to kill people. It has no other use than to kill people. That’s what they’re made for ”. This is in contradiction with the sale of the latter for “sports” use. The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agency (ATF) recognizes that Colt’s AR-15s are not “suitable” for sports use.

Even the ATF recognizes a series of Simple and inexpensive modifications that can be made to these weapons to transform them from semi-automatic to fully automatic, becoming virtually identical to its military-grade predecessor M-16. Attachments to these modifications can be found on the Legal Arms Market, and the there are many tutorials for these techniques on platforms like YouTube and others. This makes it one of the “favorite” weapons of the Mexican cartels.

The Colt company recently removed this weapon from its website.

Then there is the Cap 82A1, or .50 caliber M-107, a sniper rifle capable of shooting down helicopters, drilling holes in pressurized chemical tanks, entering armored vehicles such as those used by police and escort vehicles, and passing through bullet-proof glass.

La Barret 82A1 It does not require any modification to be able to push back the armed forces of the United States and Mexico. But it is not only the Mexican cartels that have taken advantage of the fact that this type of weapon is in the civilian market. According to the report “Criminal activity associated with .50 caliber semi-automatic rifles 2” of the Government Accountability Office (the equivalent of the Superior Audit of the Federation in Mexico), these weapons were identified “with links to terrorism, ban motorcycle gangs, international and national arms trafficking and violent crimes ”.

Finally, there is the case of WASR-10, a weapon assembled in the USA by the company Century Arms, with parts imported from Romania, by the company Romarm, SA, famous for making the well-known AK-47s.

In reality, The WASR-10 is a civilian version of the AK-47. Romarm ships a disassembled version of this weapon, omitting some of its features to evade import regulations. However, already on American territory, Century Arms reassembles them, introduce inappropriate characteristics of a sport weapon and the replacement of some of the foreign parts with other genuine American parts.

Like Colt’s AR-15, the WASR-10 “It has design features that make it easy to shoot fully automatically with simple modifications. or the elimination of certain components ”. Weapons range from semi-automatic to submachine gun, they are simple YouTube tutorials or easily acquired props.

It was the weapon used by Patrick CRUSIUS murdered 23 people two years ago during the Shooting in El Paso, Texas. Among them, 9 Mexicans.

KEEP READING: