U.S. ups border gun checks as Mexico drug deaths jump

Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:24pm EST

By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey promised Mexico tougher controls on guns flowing illegally over the border on Wednesday as Mexican drug cartels have slain 115 people already this month.

Visiting Mexican counterpart Eduardo Medina Mora in his first foreign visit since taking office in November, Mukasey said the spurt in violence in the first two weeks of 2008 was a signal to keep up the pressure on what he called "drug terrorists".

Mexico, which has been fighting a nationwide war on powerful cartels for the past year, has urged its northern neighbor to stem the flood of U.S. firearms, grenades and military weapons that wind up in the hands of Mexican gangs.

"In a perverse kind of way the level of violence suggests a level of success in dealing with the drug problem," Mukasey told a round-table with foreign media in Mexico City.

Yuma Sector Agents Arrest Two and Seize Firearm During Vehicle Stop

Monday, January 14, 2008

Yuma, Ariz. – Border Patrol agents assigned to the Yuma Sector’s Blythe Station arrested two individuals and seized a loaded firearm during a vehicle stop early Sunday morning.

About 5:30 am, agents performing traffic observations duties in Parker, Arizona noticed a suspicious 2001 Chrysler Cirrus SLX with three occupants traveling on a road commonly used by smugglers to circumvent Border Patrol agents.

Agents performed a vehicle stop, and while running records checks, discovered that all three U.S. citizen occupants had prior arrests ranging from drug possession to alien smuggling. One of the passengers had an active warrant issued by the State of Arizona for forgery. Upon searching the vehicle, agents discovered a loaded 22-caliber handgun wrapped in cloth, hidden inside the panel of the driver’s door.

Agents seized the weapon, detained the driver for carrying a concealed weapon, and detained the passenger for an outstanding warrant. The third passenger was released at the scene.

The two subjects and weapon were turned over to the Colorado River Indian Tribe Police.

Gun smuggling increases

FROM STAFF AND AP REPORTS

December 28, 2007 - 6:20PM

The number and sophistication of automatic weapons being smuggled into Mexico has increased greatly in recent months, a trend that in part pushed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to create a special office in Yuma.

The federal organization's temporary office quarters have been open for two months now and employ three agents, according to Tom Mangan, ATF special agent in Phoenix.

Mangan stressed that military-level weapons being smuggled into Mexico presents a major safety concern on both sides of the border.

Spread across a conference table at the ATF in Phoenix on one recent day were enough weapons to equip several car loads of drug runners.

''These are, quite frankly, weapons of war,'' ATF special agent Tom Mangan said as he picked up an assault rifle and examined it. "These are military-type weapons. This is firepower you would expect to see on the battlegrounds of Iraq and Afghanistan."

Agents said Thursday they found the 42 weapons in a storage locker about 10 days ago. The guns were worth $250,000 in all: Belgian-made ''FN'' handguns, semiautomatic AK-47 rifles and other pistols. They also found four olive boxes loaded with .50-caliber bullets - ammunition that's big enough to take out an airplane.