| | |  Americas & Beyond | December 2008 
Texas Arms Mexico's Violent Drug Cartels
 Associated Press
go to original
San Antonio - Texas is serving as the armory of Mexico's bloody drug cartels that are ruthlessly killing the guilty and innocent in their battles for dominance of the drug trade routes from Mexico into the United States.
In the first two installments of a three-pieces series of articles published Saturday and Sunday, the San Antonio Express-News reported that the cartels freely pay "straw buyers" - Texans with clean criminal records who can skirt gun laws without notice. The newspaper reports the buyers provide the cartels' firepower from purchases from licensed retailers, gun shows and private sellers - often leaving no documentation in their wake.
After a massacre of four police officers in the Mexican city of Aguascalientes, guns were found that had been bought legally from a gun retailer in Laredo. Among the weapons were a Walther G22 assault-style rifle and a Beretta M9 semiautomatic handgun, the newspaper reported.
The serial numbers matched those of weapons sold at Universal Sporting Goods in Laredo. The store owner, Hart Raesch, said the buyer passed the required FBI background check.
"If a guy wants to use it for illicit purposes, it's not my responsibility," he told the Express-News of the weaponry sale. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us