90
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by deconstruct@lemm.ee to c/news@lemmy.world

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."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 5 points 1 year ago

Something isn't being reported correctly here. You cannot just walk into a sporting goods store and buy a belt-fed minigun. They are sold specifically by SOTs (Federally Licensed Dealers) and aren't transferable to individuals.

So either the cartels are stealing this type of weaponry from the military or dealers, or a federal licensee is directly involved in walking the shit across. Either way it means 1) the Feds fucked up royally and 2) it should be a pretty easy investigation.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, but I'm betting that's a minority, or even likely a one off thing. The article mentions those because it's more surprising, not because it's representative. It'll likely be harder to find than this would make it seem, or this person is already in custody.

this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
90 points (95.9% liked)

News

23190 readers
2935 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS