The Firearm Blog

STRATFOR has published an article entitled Mexico: Economics and the Arms Trade. They made a very good point in saying that with semi-automatic rifles and ammunition prices in the United States so high, the large Mexican gangs have little incentive to shop over the boarder when importing from overseas is so much cheaper (even ignoring the fact that US civilian weapons are not fully-automatic, unlike overseas imports).

In fact, due to this surge in demand, it is downright difficult to locate many types of assault rifles and certain calibers of ammunition, though a lucky buyer might be able to find a basic stripped-down AR-15 for $850 to $1,100, or a semiautomatic AK-47 for $650 to $850. Of course, such a gun purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico will be sold to the cartels at a hefty premium above the purchase price.

By way of comparison, in places where weapons are abundant, such as Yemen, a surplus fully automatic assault rifle can be purchased for under $100 on the white arms market and for about the same price on the black arms market. This difference in price provides a powerful economic incentive to buy low elsewhere and sell high in Mexico, as does the inability to get certain classes of weapons such as RPGs and fragmentation grenades in the United States. Indeed, we have seen reports of international arms merchants from places like Israel and Belgium selling weapons to the cartels and bringing that ordnance into Mexico through routes other than over the U.S. border. Additionally, in South America, a number of arms smugglers, including Hezbollah and Russian organized-crime groups, have made a considerable amount of money supplying arms to groups in the region like the FARC.

I previously wrote that a significant proportion of the US-manufactured weapons captured in Mexico were in fact civilian hunting weapons, not semi-automatic, and legal to own and purchase in Mexico.

Thanks to Michael for sending me the article.

These were all confiscated off Mexican criminals. Click to expand the images.

I have never seen such an ornate AK-47 before.
I would be embarrassed to go to the range with it.


AR-15 / M16 SBR


I think the bling on this one is fake


I am sure the saints do not protect gangsters.

Hat Tip: Dragunov at MexicoDefense

As the western world moved away from full power battle rifles such as the H&K G3, FN FAL and M14, Heckler & Koch developed the HK32 and HK33 chambered in 7.62×39mm and 5.56×45mm respectively. Both were based on the G3 design and roller-delayed blowback operating mechanism.

The HK32K. Photo from HKPro.com

While appearing in promotional literature, the HK32 never went into production, or so everyone says.

Wamba, an very observant member of the HKPro.com forum, noticed photos of a Mexican policeman holding what appears to be the HK32.

The photo appeared in this article.

The magazine, both outside appearance and curvature, is significantly different from the HK33.

HK33 5.56×45mm. Showing 25, 30 and 40 round magazines.

The receiver also looks slightly different to the SW32, a clone of the HK33 made by Specials Weapons Inc chambered for 7.62×39mm.

SW32

I think the most likely explication for these rifles ending up with the Mexican police is that H&K sent pre-production samples to the Mexican Army who manufacture H&K weapons under license and they somehow made their way into the police arsenal.

[ I admit that this article is very long, about 1,400 words, but I encourage you to read the whole thing. It took about 9 hours of research and writing to put together. ]

For the past few months the media has been awash with articles discussing a new disease spreading across the USA-Mexican border, destroying lives and fueling the drug trade. The pathogen is the infamous “assault rifle” and the reason for the spread of arms is lax American gun laws, or so the American public is being told again and again.

Finally two reporters from Fox News, William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott, took the time to look into the figures behind recent politicians’ speeches and discovered that only 13% of firearms confiscated in Mexico were of US origin. While it was a breath of fresh air to read an honest piece of journalism, I was still not satisfied with the number. It seemed incredible that an organization that is able to smuggle up to $48.4 billion [PDF link] worth of drugs into Mexico and from there export them to the US with apparent impunity are forced to purchase 13% of their arms from US gun stores selling civilian legal semi-automatic firearms, rather than the global arms black-market where just about anything can be purchased if you have the money.

To get to the bottom of this I engaged in some serious research and ended up reading up to 100 press releases and documents published by the office of the Procuraduría General de la República (Attorney General of Mexico) and US Government agencies.

What hardware is being found in Mexico?

This photo, taken by a US embassy official last year, shows weapons confiscated by Mexican federal police:

The weapons displayed from left to right are:

M72 LAW : A light anti tank weapon. This rocket launcher is used by the US Army and over 20 other countries. This particular launcher, and others I have seen confiscated by the Mexican police, looks to be one of the pre-1990 versions of the M72. Not able to be purchased by civilians in the United States and are unlikely to be in use by law enforcement.

Fragmentation grenade : Frequently seized by Mexican police. These particular grenades are likely copies of the US Army M67 grenade. Not able to be purchased by civilians in the United States and are unlikely to be in use by law enforcement.

Colt M4 Commando (1) : This fully automatic sub-carbine is not available to civilians and is marketed to military and law enforcement.

M249 Light Machine Gun (1) : The Mexican army uses this weapon. Not available to civilians.

A document entitled “USA-MEXICO FIREARMS SMUGGLING” [PDF link] , published less than two weeks ago list these arms:

On this 28 months of the government, between December 1st 2006 and March 26, 2009, it has been seized 35,943 firearms, out of them 19,801 are long weapons, most of them are assault rifles; 4 millions 772 thousand 517 cartridges and ammunitions; and 2,804 grenades.

…

It is highlighted the following weapons anti-tank rockets M72 and AT-4, rocket launchers RPG-7, grenade launchers c Caliber 37mm., grenade launcher additional devices caliber 37 and 40 mm, 37 and 40 mm grenades, fragmenting grenades, Barret rifle.50″, and new generation firearms like sub-machinegun and pistol FN Herstal by Belgium, imported by US, caliber 5.7×28mm, “Five-Seven” for their technical characteristics the qualities of its subsonic, tracing and penetrating ammunition able to penetrate Kevlar and Crisat armor, it is also known as “police killer”

M72 LAWs and AT-4 rocket launcher, RPG-7 grenade launchers, MGL (Multiple Grenade Launchers), grenades, sub-machine guns (1), and armor penetrating ammunition (1) are not available to civilians in the United States.

An inert deactivated RPG is the closest thing a US Citizen can get to the real thing.

[ 1: It is possible a small quantity are owned by civilians legally in line with the National Firearms Act. These have to be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and transfers between individuals are regulated. Because the Firearm Owners Protection Act prevents any more of these machine guns are entering the civilian market, they command exorbitant prices far exceeding the price that military, law enforcement or government departments pay. ]

These are all weapons you would expect para-military narco-terrorists to be using. They would have to have been either stolen from the Mexican army/police, stolen from overseas armies or acquired by arms dealers using forged end user certificates and illegally exported to Mexico.

What Hardware are the Mexican Federales reporting?

I have lost count of how many press releases detailing firearms and explosives captured during raids I have read. There are some glaring discrepancies in what they report.

Firstly, the Mexican police seem to have either little understanding of the firearms they are confiscating, or little command of the english language to interpret what they have captured. For example, in this press release from last year, they list this rifle “Un rifle marca Nickel Steel Barrel, matrícula 440236, calibre 30mm” (English: “A rifle brand Nickel Steel Barrel, number 440236, size 30mm”, emphasis mine). The “brand” was obviously read off the barrel. They also regularly name the same type of firearm under varying names. For example MAK-90 Norinco semi-automatic AK-47 clones are sometimes called MAK-90, Mark-90 or MK-90 or just “Norinco”. They do not appear to be able to keep consistent records. The police regularly make many other sloppy errors but I will not list them all.

Secondly, despite the significant desertion of Mexican soldiers who likely took thier M16 rifles with them (150,000 soldiers deserted in the past 6 years out of a force of 183,700 active personal) the Mexicans have kept very quite about M16 rifles being confiscated. I only managed to find evidence of three M16 rifles captured in the past 12 months. This does not make sense considering the vast quantity of these arms almost certainty exist in the hands of Mexican criminals.

Apart from the obviously missing M16s there appear to be very few real assault weapons confiscated. Fragmentation grenades are often found, but grenade launchers, rocket launchers, fully automatic AK-47s, machine guns and sub machine guns are rarely found compared to benign weapons.

Finally, a significant amount of arms confiscated are indeed made in the United States by well known companies such as Remington, Winchester, Mossberg and Ruger but these also happen to be arms that can be legally owned in Mexico. Hunting rifles in non-military calibers such as .22, .25, .270 and .30-30 are often confiscated as are 12 gauge shotguns and .380 ACP pistols. All these can be owned legally in Mexico, although they do require a license. These photos are of “menacing” weaponry that was captured last year:

Antique Winchester Model 06 pump action .22 rifle in front


Note the single shot 12 gauge take-down shotgun (bottom right)

While I did not do a scientific analysis of all the press releases I read, I would say possibly 25% of firearms confiscated by the Mexican police were probably at one point in time legally imported and legally owned. Just like in the United States, criminals steal arms from law abiding citizens. It is quite possible that the Mexican Army, who themselves run the only gun store in Mexico, imported many of these arms.

Top sold pistols in Mexico last year.

Conclusion

I suspect the Mexican police are deliberately or unintentionally obscuring the reporting of firearms confiscated. Embarrassing incidents such as the capture weapons that were stolen from the military or police are either reclassified, left off reports or not reported to the public. A significant of the captured weapons that the ATF traced may have been legally exported to Mexico.

While border smuggling or firearms is a serious problem, it is just one symptom of the leaky southern border. I took the number of firearms captured last year that were traced by the BATFE according to Fox News : 3000 ( 6000 / 2) and multiplied that by $1,500 (the approx. cost of an AR-15 rifle). I then compared that the most conservative estimate of illegal drugs imported from Mexico ($13 billion). Because the media like charts I drew this one:

Can you see the bar representing firearms? The chart would have to be very tall to show even a pixel of the firearm bar. Illegal firearm exports are only 0.035% of illegal drug imports from Mexico. What hope is there in stopping such a small quantity of firearms from traversing the border when a torrent of drugs is flowing in the opposite direction?

[ Feel free to reproduce this article on your website or blog, but do not hot link the images, and make sure you attribute me as the author and link back to the web page. I would appreciate you post a link the reproduced article in the comments below. ]

Thanks to Jay for providing some research material.

Raul emailed me some photos taken in Reynosa, Mexico, which is directly across from the city of McAllen, Texas, after a gun battle with between police and Mexican military and a drug gang. I thought this photo of an AR-15/M16/M4 with a lot of accessories hanging off it was interesting. I have seen many photos of confiscated C-MAGS taken from drug gangs, but never a photo of one that was actually used in combat and the gun is was used with.

More info on the gun battle here.

Thanks Raul for the photo and info.

Click to expand

This beautiful .38 Super chambered 1911 pistol from Colt is a special edition honoring Vincente Guerrero, the 2nd president of Mexico. The gun features:

Colt factory gold plated barrel bushing and spur hammer and strut. Old style factory roll marks. High polished stainless steel slide flats embellished in 24 kt gold with “La Patria”, the Rampant Colt Logo, and Vincente Guerrero with his dates

The pistol is being distributed by TALO Inc.

Prensa Latina reports:

A SEDENA pamphlet handed over to several entities explains what type of guns they can use to fight organized crime, the way to acquire them and the way to request them, even abroad.

The newly allowed guns include calibre-40 and fragmentation grenades.

The SEDENA document also explains the type of training and confidence control tests to be undergone by those using the guns.

I presume .40 means .40 S&W. Personally, unless I had a multi-shot 40mm grenade launcher as my sidearms and something big enough to read-out-and-touch-someone from a significant distance as my primary arm I don’t think I would even remotely consider Mexican police work … and even then

This interesting .50 BMG rifle was discovered on a raid by Mexican police and army:

Click to expand.

My take on the rifle is that it is a McMillian TAC-50 action with an AR-50 barrel and muzzlebreak and a homemade unfinished (no recoil pad) stock.

McMillian TAC-50

Armalite AR-50

More photo of the captured weapons at MP.net.

From MP.net:

Army troops seized 400 pistols and rifles, 500,000 bullets, 165 grenades, several grenade launchers, six heavy machine guns and an anti-tank rocket launcher.

Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales said the arsenal “is the largest in the history of Mexico.”

Click to expand.

Hollywood bling. Note the two revolving multi-shot grenade launchers.

That is some serious firepower!

More photos at MP.net