Drug trafficker’s ‘river of iron’ smuggling arms to Mexico must be stopped: New York Times

Mexico and the United States are plunged into a serious traffic problem that extends to all of Latin America. This phenomenon, named “The Iron River of Arms”, was found by researchers seeking to decipher why the two nations “failed to stop it”.

There are two different scenarios: on the one hand, Mexican laws maintain such strict control in the sale of weapons that there is only one legal store controlled by the military, while in the United States, the “legal vacuum in private sales” has benefited criminals and fostered an increase in violence, he said New York Times researcher Ian Grillo, who focuses on drug trafficking and organized crime in Latin America.

The flow of arms is particularly constant at the northern border of Mexico. From 2007 to 2019, he noted, more than 164,000 weapons were confiscated from the Mexican drug trade., but the tracing of the origin has led analysts at American armories and factories.

“The Iron River bound for Mexico crosses the channel which transports weapons from US states with lax gun control laws to cities with stricter laws, such as Chicago, Washington and New York, which now they register an increase in homicidesSaid the researcher.

The Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE) has estimated that more than 2.5 million weapons have crossed the border in the past decade. “The black market in arms is closely linked to drug trafficking, like two poisonous plants that become entangled with each other,” the investigator said.

The trial of Joaquín el “Chapo” Guzmán focused on this problem, because He not only pointed out that the Sinaloa cartel was trafficking tons of cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin to the United States, but that on their return they took guns with them. According to prosecutor Andrea Goldberg, the capo “did something similar to acquire the weapons or distribute them, not only for their personal use, but also for hired killers and gunmen to use them.”

The “legal vacuum” to which Grillo refers It is up to people who claim to be collectors to sell firearms to third parties without background checks and identification. Although President Joe Biden has launched an initiative to encourage universal background checks, there are other shortcomings.

Many occupy “Ghost buyers” or people without a criminal record that in case of catch ”, they would have to pay only between 50 and 100 dollars of fineOthers buy stolen weapons or buy “ghost” products on the Internet.

Although attempts have been made to put an end to these strategies on various occasions, the author assures that there is a lobby group which has succeeded in abolishing almost all the regulations on firearms, and that the Republicans in Congress have also gone to great lengths to reverse any changes.

While both countries’ strategies consistently fail, Grillo points out, “Drug traffickers often decorate their weapons with gold and precious stones to celebrate the tools they use to earn money and bring death.”

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