A significant flow of firearms arrives from the United States to Mexico destined to swell the arsenal of organized crime, where Sonora plays an important role due to its geographic location, said Francisco Piña Osuna, researcher at the Department of Sociology and Public Administration at the University of Sonora (Unison).
The university professor also mentioned that due to the situation that the border between the United States and Mexico is going through, specifically between Arizona and Sonora, respectively, a comprehensive strategy is required to address the problem, however, the legislation of both countries regarding the possession of weapons is diametrically opposed, which complicates this effort.
“A good percentage of this behavior that occurs in the case of Arizona and Sonora, has to do with this condition that is created by having two very dissimilar regulations. The American one is open to civil society, of a large number of firearms, of common use and at a higher level. On the south side, there is a stricter regulation, since all weapons are for the exclusive use of the Army, and if you have possession, it has to be under certain permits and regulated by the Ministry of National Defense,” he explained.
Entrance gate to San Luis, Arizona
This creates a legal loophole, where the demand for firearms increases along with the violence of criminal organizations, which have the capacity to finance operations where networks of American citizens buy weapons and group them together to sell them to drug cartels.
“There must be a very well-established network in these cities, some related to Mexican cartels or criminal groups, and others totally American. It is impossible to think that the drugs that arrive in the United States from Mexico are only the responsibility of Mexican operators, if they want to say so, it is good for their interests and to disassociate themselves from the problem, that this disclaimer of responsibility is historic,” he mentioned.
However, this situation works in reverse, since in the same way that drugs are distributed in the United States from Mexico, weapons are also distributed in the national territory and beyond its borders, coming from the United States, thanks to a trafficking network that allows it.
Meanwhile, the state of Sonora, being a border with Arizona, is in an important position in this problem, considering that there are several criminal groups fighting for control of drug trafficking, at the same time that it has greater ease in approaching the United States arms market.
Seizure Sedena Sáric
What does the US say?
According to the most recent report from the United States Agency for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Arizona is one of the main states from which firearms are trafficked to Mexico, along with Texas, California and New Mexico.
In this regard, the report details that the route from Arizona to Sonora is one of the most important for arms trafficking, along with the route from Texas to Tamaulipas, while at least 74% of the firearms of American manufacture trafficked internationally were recovered in Mexico.
25 magazines and more than 200 firearm cartridges were reported seized / Courtesy | State Security Board
This suggests that firearms trafficking from the United States to Mexico is a significant problem that requires urgent attention, which is why the ATF has identified these five main routes for arms trafficking from the United States to Mexico.
The data includes the route from Arizona to Sonora, so cooperation between the United States and Mexican authorities is essential to combat this problem and reduce violence in the region.
Currently, a lawsuit filed by Marcelo Ebrard in 2021, then Foreign Minister of Mexico, is in force, where he pointed to US arms manufacturing companies causing death and violence in Mexico due to the availability of large arsenals of weapons that strengthen the arsenals of drug cartels. However, so far it has come to nothing.
Source: oem
