The US continues to be the major weapon supplier to Mexico’s drug cartels, according to a report the Cabinet submitted to President Felipe Calderón last week. In the text, the secretariats of Government, Defense, Navy and Public Security, and the Prosecutor General’s office say the cross-border arms traffic is a $22 million-a-year trade, and that weapons from the US have reached Los Zetas, bloody paramilitary wing of the Gulf Cartel, as well as criminal organizations in Sinaloa and Tijuana.
M72 and AT-4 antitank rockets, RPG-7 rocket launchers, 37- and 40-mm MGL grenade launchers, large amounts of fragmentation grenades and 50-mm Barret rifles have been confiscated from the Zetas. The list of arms confiscated from the gang last year also includes submachine guns and FN Herstal pistols, also known as “cop killers.” Over the past 21 months, authorities have seized 28,000 firearms, 3.7 million rounds of ammunitions and 1,981 grenades. (Prensa Latina, Excélsior, Jan. 5)
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