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 News from Around the Americas | December 2006 
Mexico's Arms Law also Trips Up Border Agents
 Arthur H. Rotstein - Associated Press
| If you take weapons across the border....
• You will become on of the dozens of U.S./Foreign citizens arrested each month for violating Mexico's strict firearm and ammunition laws, whether you knew about the law or not;
• You will go to jail and your vehicle will be seized;
• You will be separated from family, friends and your job, and likely suffer substantial financial hardship;
• You will pay court costs and other fees ranging into the tens of thousands of dollars defending yourself;
• And worst of all, you may get up to a 30-year sentence in a Mexican prison if found guilty.
- Mexican Tourism Board |
Prominent signs spell out the warning on roads leading to ports of entry into Mexico: "Weapons and ammunition illegal in Mexico."
But despite the postings, each year a number of careless or forgetful Americans fail to see the signs or to heed the advice, and wind up under arrest in Mexico for days or even months.
Even U.S. Border Patrol agents.
A week ago, an off-duty agent from the Yuma Sector was arrested and held for more than a day after driving his personal car across the border at the San Luis Rio Colorado port of entry. Mexican customs inspectors found a bag containing 650 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition in his sedan.
Arturo Santana, a San Luis police spokesman, said the unidentified agent was released on bail. The Mexican federal prosecutor's office will decide whether to file charges, but it's likely the agent will only pay a fine, Santana said.
The agent gave a statement that he either forgot or did not know that the cartridges, which were for work, were in the car, Santana added.
Cynthia Sharpe, U.S. consul for northern Sonora, said she could not provide information about the case because of U.S. Privacy Act rights. But she said it's not the first time she has had to lobby to get a U.S. citizen out of a Mexican jail for carrying weapons across the border.
"It is not uncommon," she said. "We have instances of (weapons) violations several times a year."
In the spring of 2005, two agents assigned to the Border Patrol's El Centro, Calif., Sector did the same thing. They drove across the border into Mexicali with a box in the back seat of a private car that contained 1,286 .40-caliber handgun and 10 .223-caliber rifle cartridges.
Agents German Verdugo and David Allen Navarro were released from a Mexican prison after paying fines of $1,963 each. Charges of smuggling ammunition were dropped.
Border Patrol spokesman Xavier Rios in Washington said agents are reminded during quarterly firearms-proficiency training about Mexico's weapons prohibition — and of the need to empty their vehicles before driving across the border. It's not uncommon to go to Mexico for dinner or to visit family or friends, he said.
But sometimes they forget about the ban on weapons or ammunition, Rios said. "It happens. We're all human. And we all make mistakes."
"I think it's just a matter of a person, an agent forgetting about the fact that he had those materials in his vehicle, and next thing you know he's crossing into Mexico."
Still, Rios, a 21-year Border Patrol veteran, added, "It doesn't happen very often." He said he could count on one hand incidents involving agents stopped by Mexican customs officials for weapons or ammunition violations.
Numerous arrests of Americans ignorant of or oblivious to the Mexican law have been occurring for more than 10 years.
In August 1996, nearly 20 Americans were imprisoned in the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa for bringing firearms or ammunition into the country. |
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