Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexican-drug-cartels-american-weapons-smuggled-across-border/
Mexican drug cartels have been smuggling a vast arsenal of even military-grade weapons out of the U.S. with the help of American citizens, a CBS Reports investigation has found.
Exclusively-obtained U.S. intelligence documents and interviews with half a dozen current and former officials reveal that the American government has known this for years but, sources said, it’s done little to stop these weapons trafficking networks inside the United States, which move up to a million firearms across the border annually, including belt-fed miniguns and grenade launchers.
Dozens of cartel gunrunning networks, operating like terrorist cells, pay Americans to buy weapons from gun stores and online dealers all across the country, as far north as Wisconsin and even Alaska, according to U.S. intelligence sources. The firearms are then shipped across the southwest border through a chain of brokers and couriers.
When CBS News pressed the Justice Department about its findings, a senior official confirmed that “We absolutely recognize the problem here that … the lion’s share of firearms trafficked to Mexican cartels are coming from the United States.”
The ATF did Operation Wide Receiver under Bush and Operation Fast and Furious under Obama because of all the illegal gun trafficking to Mexico. So the ATF was following an example that was already there. The ATF was shitty about keeping track of all those guns.
That said, illegal smuggling of guns into Mexico has been an issue for decades. Over 80% of illegal guns in Mexico come from the US.