ATF agent says cartel hit men's guns from El Paso

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 05/22/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

High-powered rifles and handguns used by drug cartel hit men waging a bloody war in Mexico have been traced to suspected gun smugglers in El Paso, an ATF agent testified Wednesday at a federal detention hearing in El Paso.

Money and weapons flowing from the United States fuel drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico, to the tune of about $10 billion a year, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's deputy federal attorney general for international affairs, said Wednesday as representatives from the U.S. and Mexico gathered in Austin to discuss border security.

It was the profits from illegal gun sales that allegedly motivated Juan Carlos Meza, 23, to sell at least 19 firearms bought at El Paso gun stores to suspected hit men, an ATF agent testified at the detention hearing for Meza in the federal courthouse in El Paso.

Meza, who is a citizen of Mexico but a legal resident of El Paso, was denied bond Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Norbert Garney, who described Meza as a potential flight risk and a "danger" because of the nature of the crime.