US to crack down on arms trafficking over Mexico border

Another criticism of the new rules is that they come at a time when the ATF is facing heavy criticism for "Operation Fast and Furious," in which anti-drug officials allegedly allowed thousands of guns to “walk” over the border into Mexico, in an attempt to trace them back to known cartel members. When this was made public, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) began a series of congressional investigations into the operation.

At the most recent of these, as Bloomberg reports, acting ATF director Kenneth Melson admitted to congressional investigators that some of the Mexican cartel members his agency targeted were paid informants of the Federal Buerau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Agency, meaning that some of them could have potentially used tax payer money to purchase weapons illegally and smuggle them across the border for criminal purposes.

While Senator Grassley and Representative Issa have expressed shock over this revelation, it’s impossible to know how frequently it occurred, and it is unclear how this differs from general “sting operation” tactics carried out by law enforcement.

Still, the sensationalist announcement is sure to provoke further outrage amongst the gun control lobby, and provide further ammunition to those opposed to stronger gun control measures along the border.

Despite the storm of criticism facing the ATF, some in Congress have recognized the role that U.S. weapons play in fueling Mexico's drug war. Last month, three U.S. senators released a report, citing ATF data, which found that of the 29,284 firearms recovered by officials in Mexico in 2009 and 2010, 20,504 (70 percent) came from the United States.

To remedy this, the group has called for a much stricter set of federal gun control regulations, endorsing a national law requiring background checks for all firearms purchases.

--- Geoffrey Ramsey is a writer for Insight – Organized Crime in the Americas, which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region. Find all of his research here.

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