Mexican Muskets
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“Hey, Aarif. Toss twenty crates of those Russian AK-47’s in with the next heroin shipment.”
The Russians left a lot of fully-automatic (machine guns for the newbies) AK-47’s behind in Afghanistan. News reports note that you can buy them on the streets of Kabul for $150. Deep discounts when buying in bulk. Same for various rocket propelled grenades (old Soviet and new imports from Iran), hand grenades, land mines and other things you can’t buy at Rick’s Rifle Rack in Glendale, Arizona.
The drug running business is an international criminal operation. Mexican cartels shop the world for their supplies, importing cocaine, heroin and other recreational dope from the earth’s distant regions. Since cartels are at war with the Mexican government, U.S. DEA agents and each other, they also import a boatload of armament.
When you rake in $23 billion a year in revenues, you can be picky about your weaponry.
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| Civilian toys confiscated in Arizona |
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| War weapons confiscated in Mexico |
It is little wonder then in many of the press briefings that the Mexican government used to conduct after cartel arrests, they would showcase the confiscated death merchandise. In many of the photographs afforded the press, we see Chinese, Russian and former Soviet block surplus AK-47s, land mines, grenades, rocket launchers, rocket propelled grenades and other devices that would make deer hunting too easy (though it would be an easier hunt, and one that would no longer require field dressing the carcass since there would not be one). Odds are the military devices and explosives came through the same routes, if not from the same vendors, as did the narcotics.
Which makes the recent gun bust in Arizona amusing.
Mexico’s president (a city hall file clerk by U.S. standards) recently was complaining about American bought guns causing drug cartel carnage down south. Of the tens of thousands of rifles the Mexican government claims to have recovered from cartels, about 5,000 (18%) were traced back to the United States. We must assume the ratio is actually lower since every corner is corrupt within the Mexican government, and many cartel arms have likely vanished back into the underworld. Firearms that actually came from del Norte were civilian single-shot rifles, not the pull-and-spray AK’s imported from abroad. Thus American retail armament is a trivial contributor to Mexican criminal violence.
Just do a Google image search for “mexico cartel beheading” to see what we are dealing with (unless you are weak of heart – the photos are vivid).
American federales busted a gun running ring outside of Phoenix, claiming that they had acquired 700 pieces of armament destined for Mexico. No mention is made of who is receiving the guns, though prohibitionist nincompoops immediately claimed they were heading for the drug cartels. Since cartels can import crates filled with fully automatic AK-47’s for $150 each, it is unlikely that they would pay $1,200 for a single-shot civilian version in The States. Odds are American guns heading south are being bought by Mexican citizens afraid of the drug cartels and disallowed self-protection firepower by their government.
“It is unacceptable to have 90% of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers, mayors, kidnap innocent people and do terrible things come from the United States,” is how California’s senile senator Dianne Feinstein parlays the situation for your political disadvantage. This is why we are rapidly disowning her, because keeping company with delusional people presents unacceptable risks. Perhaps we can ship Dianne to Mexico to help fight drug cartel violence, though the excitement might cause her to lose her head.
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